Redeeming Features: A Memoir, By Nicholas Haslam

If we believe that we are living in an age where our celebrities are increasingly famous for being famous, Nicky Haslam might serve as living proof.

Yet here, the man who can be spotted at any party worth attending, proves his writing skills are at least up to his small-talk.

Haslam, the son of a diplomat and granddaughter of the 7th Earl of Bessborough, takes us, evocatively, from a polio-riddled childhood to his incarnation as socialite.

This memoir might have been aimed at the OK-reading hordes with an insatiable hunger for celebrity stories - and he serves up many about encounters with Marilyn Monroe, Jack Profumo, Mick Jagger, but he may earn some more unlikely fans with the way he tells them.