In 1949, Britain unilaterally recognised Sayyid Mohammed Idris as king of Cyrenaica (eastern Libya), a move that encouraged the UN to recognise him as king of all Libya in 1951. His was a despotic regime that was easily overthrown by (the equally despotic) Muammar Qadhafi in 1969. Since his fall in 2011, distant events of earlier times have greater relevance. The talk is an introduction to Richard Synge’s new book Operation Idris: Inside the British Administration of Cyrenaica and Libya 1942-52, published by Silphium Press, the imprint of the Society of Libyan Studies, London.