The furore following The Sun’s pictures of Saddam Hussein in
his underpants brings me back to my own involvement in the publication
of “illegal” world exclusive pictures of Nazi Rudolf Hess in his cell,
in his pyjamas, 30 years ago, reading what is now a chapter of my
memoirs,The Queen, Rupert & Me (Sid Harta Publishers).

I
had persuaded my jailer collaborator, Col.Eugene Bird, US Director of
Spandau Prison, to take Polaroid shots of Hess and this he faithfully
did. However he went a bit too far and then used a sound-on-film movie
camera to film Hess in the prison garden. He was caught, sacked, put
under house arrest and flown to Washington to be rapped over the
knuckles. Our book The Loneliest Man in the World became a bestseller.