Beware the Mandarins

A house fire and fatalities which were preventable sets the scene. Subsequently, the scientists at the DSIR's Fire Research Station in Boreham Wood, Hertfordshire, set about developing an effective method of siting fire stations which would reduce the loss of life, the damage to property and the consequential losses to jobs, trade and industry, but are thwarted by a network of corruption at the Home Office. Jane M Hogg started work at the Fire Research Station in 1960 and moved to the Home Office when that Ministry took over the work on fire station siting in 1967. While at the Home Office Jane found herself being drawn inexorably into uncovering the web of intrigue and corruption which surrounded her. It led her into an increasingly bizarre and dangerous world: a world she would not have believed existed until she had experienced it. This gripping story of corruption in high places is essential reading for those who care about honesty and transparency in government. Written in an unsentimental style, Jane's memoir of life in the civil service is an honest and dispassionate account of how government actually works.