[1] After university Watson trained as a psychologist at the Tavistock Clinic in London under R. D. Laing, but left this profession in the late 1960s after becoming dissatisfied with Freudian theories.

This book, Watson's first, had its roots in a 1973 assignment from the Insight team to look into the uses of psychological warfare by the British Army in Northern Ireland during the height of The Troubles.

[6] As part of his research Watson visited the Fort Bragg army base in North Carolina, which convinced him that military psychology was more advanced than he had previously imagined.

[9] In an interview with Noah Charney for The Daily Beast, he related that the investigation had so damaged Sotheby's reputation that people he knew in the London art world wouldn't speak to him for years afterwards.

[10] In a 2000 article for the New Statesman he argued that forgeries in the antiquities trade remained a serious problem, with fake ancient artefacts even making their way into major museums, aided by curators who knew little of archaeology and were liable to be hoodwinked by corrupt dealers.

The book detailed the criminal career of Italian art dealer, Giacomo Medici, and his several decades spent supplying museum with illegally excavated and smuggled antiquities.