Johnson's memoir has been long-awaited: in January last year, his register of interests revealed he had received a £510,000 advance, well above the £7,674 his successor Liz Truss received for her book 10 Years To Save The West.

In his shameless and predictable 772-page account of events, the former PM forgoes the truth to paint a preposterous picture of himself as a man of destiny, too good for his own good

By Boris Johnson. Harper; 784 pages; $40. William Collins; £30. I t was 2008, during the global financial crisis. Boris Johnson was mayor of London. The political situ

Unleashed is the title of this memoir, with a picture of Boris looking sexily tousled on the front. So what are we to think except that the author intends us to see him as an animal – one of those apex predators - who’s been let loose finally to tell the world how it was and how he is.