Broken Vows (65 page)

Providing sources in books that rely on any off-the-record conversations is always unsatisfactory. Unusually, however, a considerable number of interviewees in this book agreed to go ‘on the record’. Their names appear in the text alongside their comments. However, some constraints remain. For various reasons, most did not want their names to reappear regularly in this list of sources. Some are mentioned once, some occasionally, while others go unmentioned. Assiduous readers seeking the source of a quotation may be irritated by those omissions, but using an alternative identification – such as ‘private information’ – would, I believe, be worse, so I hope the compromise is acceptable.

Unless sourced to a book, newspaper or television programme, most of the quotations in the book are from named civil servants, politicians or military personnel whom I interviewed. Regarding the references from the inquiry chaired by John Chilcot, I have only included dates when a witness gave oral evidence twice, or when his or her evidence also included a written submission. In some instances, the reference only mentions a page in the transcript.