At Beaconsfield, Gaddafi resented being questioned by his military instructor about his opinion of Arab nationalism. He later said of the instructor: "He was a British Major of Norwegian origin. He represented to us the typical ugly British colonialist. It was obvious that he hated the Arabs. He asked many questions concerning our national feelings." Gaddafi refused to incriminate himself, pretending he did not understand English to avoid answering.

Gaddafi and his fellow Libyan officers on the course were, according to his official biographer, subjected to "endless bitterness, hostility, scorn and mockery, and as if to rub salt into an already gaping wound, nobody seemed even remotely reluctant to make any secret of their prejudice against the Libyans." His instructors from those days have different recollections. "Gaddafi was rather a nice chap," says one. "He even sent me a Christmas card when he got back to Libya." And a senior officer, who later served at the Ministry of Defence, said: "Gaddafi certainly wasn't the most ghastly hooligan we'd seen at Beaconsfield." He added with a rueful smile: "He gave us no reason to poison him while he was there."

Gaddafi himself said in a later interview that while he hated the drabness and dirtiness of London, he fell for the scenic charms of the Home Counties: "Britain was the first foreign country I visited in my life. I had not even visited an Arab country. I loved the country life and the villages-Beaconsfield and High Wycombe. I also visited the Palace of Windsor. It was beautiful." But he added: "After my stay in Britain, the idea I had about it changed. I had thought they were advanced while we were backward. But I returned more confident and proud of our values, ideals and social character."

Three years after his walk down Piccadilly, Gaddafi followed a tradition of foreign officers trained by the British Army. He made use of his new-found knowledge of signals, communications and intelligence to seize political power in his own country. Along with another group of young officers, he overthrew the ailing King Idris in a bloodless coup and promoted himself to Colonel, the same rank as his Egyptian hero Nasser, and the one he held to his death.

The 1969 coup took the Foreign Office in London by surprise and it sought our man in Tripoli's assessment of the new leader. The reply, in the National Archive, is to the point: "The simplest conclusion to draw would be that in his vision of himself as a new Arab Messiah, Gaddafi is bordering on the insane."