Celebrity lives

I learned from this little lot that if one has read The Diary of a Nobody, then one can derive pleasure from even the most pedestrian life story, as there’s always an unintentional chuckle to be had. The former racing driver Nigel Mansell’s Staying on Track (Simon & Schuster, £20) delighted me with its Pooterish charms, from bullied boyhood :

One time I was due to race for England abroad. The school announced the exciting news in assembly one morning… that afternoon I was attacked viciously with a cricket bat in the playground. I thought the other children would be proud of me. How wrong can you be?

— to triumphant adulthood, bashing himself up for pleasure and profit:

Let me tell you about the time I told a priest to get lost. Yes, you’d think that’s not one of my finest moments, not least because I am not a fan of swearing and I have a lot of respect for the church. However, I do have an excuse, of sorts. I was nearly dead.

I have a crush on Alan Sugar and blush to admit that I bought Unscripted: My Ten Years in Telly (Macmillan, £20) the day before the review copy arrived. At a time when Sugar’s beloved Labour party is so hostile to the likes of him (Jewish, patriotic, go-getting, keen on employing tough women in top jobs), the tale of the boy from the Hackney council flat who made a fortune in computers and then built another career encouraging non-entrepreneurs to laugh at the pomposity and ineptitude of Keystone Kapitalists on The Apprentice — his entire fee going to Great Ormond Street Hospital — is poignant and somewhat nostalgic, as well as a laugh.