The Audacity of Hype, By Armando Iannucci

The Audacity of Hype - a pun on the name of Barack Obama's pre-presidential campaign book - presents Iannucci's grumpy old man's view on his everything from reality TV to terrorism, and most profanely of all - Obama himself. "Am I the only person left on the planet who finds Barack Obama a little bit dull?" in These short essays by the comedian which began life as newspaper columns, it is not the more predicatable swipes at British political figures or his satire on the American invasion of Iraq that best showcase his skills for humorous invention but his eccentric flights of fancy. Passages such as that in which the world's population has been eliminated by terrorists, save for comedians - Jonathan Ross is forced to become interim president - make this an original armchair read.