I’d like to offer a mild protest at the comparison between Sir Thomas More and Beria. Beria did not, to the best of my knowledge, carry out interrogations at his own house. That work was done by his minions in the cellars of the Lyubyanka and other locations. What Beria used his own home for was drugging and raping little girls — according to Khrushchov, at any rate. I don’t believe Sir Thomas shared that particular hobby.