An inveterate conspirator whose suspicions of others were not dependent on the existence of plots.

From Small Wars, Faraway Places by Michael Burleigh. Page 288.

The Suez Crisis is a notorious instance of misfires from bad historical analogies. Fresh from the horror of a world war most believed could have been prevented by confronting Hitler when he bluffed his way into the Rhineland in 1936, men with little or no knowledge of modern Egyptian history accommodated every assertive move by Nasser to a misleading Hitlerian template. This was a bipartisan affair since the Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell was as keen on comparisons between Nasser and Hitler as any Tory.31 Nasser’s writings outlining his vision of Egypt’s role in the world were read by the light of Mein Kampf, yet in reality his view that Egypt was simultaneously a Middle Eastern, African and Muslim power was entirely comparable to the belief widespread among the British that their islands’ destiny was linked to the Commonwealth, Europe and the US.32 One who knew him well was the British Ambassador to Cairo, Humphrey Trevelyan, who memorably described him as a charming man of modest tastes, who never lost his temper or raised his voice, but who was also an inveterate conspirator whose suspicions of others were not dependent on the existence of plots.