In 1984, investigative journalist Chapman Pincher published "Too Secret Too Long", a book which examined the early life of Hollis and his MI5 career drawing upon new sources and upon many interviews with retired intelligence personnel. Pincher published an updated version of his book in 2009. Pincher also accused Hollis of being a Soviet agent, although entirely separate from the Cambridge Five spy ring. Pincher claims Hollis was recruited by Richard Sorge in China in the early 1930s to spy for the GRU. Evidence has been advanced to support these assertions by Pincher in his book, "Treachery: Betrayals, Blunders, and Cover-ups: Six Decades of Espionage Against America and Great Britain", which is devoted to positing that Hollis was "Elli", the highly placed mole within MI5 identified by Igor Gouzenko, and operating as a Soviet agent from the 1940s until retiring from MI5. In its obituary of Pincher, The Times discredited the journalist's conspiracy theory ("Paranoia Hollisiensisis") and specified that Hollis had not been a Soviet spy.