Global Village Idiot - Couverture souple

'This week the first pet passports came into effect. Around the country dogs have been hopping into photo booths and trying to look as relaxed as possible, which is not easy when you know you're not allowed on the chair.'

Gathered here are the best of John O'Farrell's newspaper columns for the Guardian and the Independent, which saw him win Best Columnist of the Year at the British Liars' Awards. In a hundred highly readable and very funny pieces he tackles every topical issue from mobile phones to the dangers of asteroids:'Okay, so one huge meteorite wiped out all the dinosaurs, but you have to admit it was incredibly bad luck that they were all standing in that exact same spot at the same time.' He also claims that scientists only developed a genetically superior monkey so that it could advertise lapsang souchong instead of PG Tips; that with one punch John Prescott placed himself near the top of the list of the world's hardest ever politicians (way ahead of Shirley Williams and Mahatma Gandhi); and that with the election of George W. Bush, the global village has finally got its own global village idiot.

John O'Farrell is the author of seven books. His first book, Things Can Only Get Better, was a number one bestseller and was dramatized for BBC Radio 4. The Best a Man Can Get was the bestselling debut novel of 2002. As well as being a bestselling author, John O'Farrell is a regular contributor to television and radio. For the past five years he has written a weekly humorous column for the Guardian, three collections of which have been published as Global Village Idiot, I Blame the Scapegoats and I Have a Bream.