I say, you chaps...

... some blighter has gone and written a book about Anthony Blair, our head boy. And at first sight it looks to be jolly good. But one can't help feeling that there's a bit of a jape involved here somewhere.

John Morrison, the old boy who is the author of Anthony Blair -- Captain of School, is a former foreign correspondent and biographer of Boris Yeltsin, so he knows how to string words together. And his latest 'biography' is just out.

Published by Black Pig Books, A. Blair et cetera has garnered some positive plugs from the likes of Matthew Parris, Matthew Tempest, and Kevin Maguire. OK, so some of these are former colleagues, but they wouldn't embarrass themselves if they weren't genuinely enthusiastic.

Black Pig is the author's own company, and, like every other sensible person these days, he is publishing his own book and plugging it online. Extracts can be found on the Guardian web site.

Prime Ministers have always been ready targets for satire, as Private Eye has regularly shown, and this particular satire looks like a lot of fun. It's probably more fun for those who actually went to a school like the one described, and for those who are familiar with school stories from an era even earlier than that of Molesworth. But since bits of it are free in the Guardian you can find out for yourself whether it appeals.