“Eventually we were all called down, one or two at a time, to Gareth Evans’ office, where he told us how the deal with Kernot had been done over a plunger of coffee. Was it only me who was mortified the next morning to see that same plunger of coffee anecdote spread across every paper in the country? It was the beginning of the formulaic “inside story” (and of course it was later revealed that the story was more complicated than first appeared).”