Synopsis: "The foundation and background of I Got References is truth. Sometimes there creeps in a story, such as "The Devil That Troubled the Chessboard" or "Comrade Death"; but those stories have their roots in real events. I Got References takes a form not commonly represented in publishers' lists. It contains a bit of my life, a bit of other people's lives, and a bit of autobiography and biography in fictionalised form. The result, I fear, is neither fish nor fowl nor good red-herring. But I think it forms a whole. And if that whole makes entertainment, then the book will have achieved its object." from Apology the book's preface.