[.rt error 1] by the courts in restraining abuse of executive power, and the effect of detention upon the lives of individuals concerned, very few of whom constituted any threat to national security. Much of what was done was kept secret at the time, and even today the authorities continue to refuse access to many of the papers which have escaped deliberate destruction. This study is the first to attempt to penetrate the veil of secrecy and tell the story of the gravest invasion of civil liberty which has occurred in Britain this century.

Readership: Scholars and students of modern British history and politics, especially Second World War history.

A. W. Brian Simpson, Charles F. and Edith J. Clyne Professor of Law, University of Michigan

"comprehensive and meticulously researched book" - Observer

"a detailed and fascinating narrative ... Professor Simpson has told a tale of great exemplary interest, based upon distinguished and pertinacious scholarship. We are all in his debt." - Cambridge Law Journal

"the most informative, detached and sceptical account of the security background to the crisis of 1940" - Intelligence and National Security Review