World Cup Fever

It's hard to take a full 360º turn without seeing a new football book or a photo of a metatarsal. Much has been made of the similarities between Paul Gascoigne and Wayne Rooney – a sobering thought for Rooney should he spend this summer's World Cup on the bench.

Gascoigne won Sports Book of the Year in 2005 for his first biography, Gazza: My Story, an award that he accepted in an unbalanced, tearful speech that made watchers fear for his future sanity. One would have hoped that some form of rescue plan would be enacted; this has at last arrived with the release of Being Gazza: My Journey to Hell and Back. The book certainly provides insight into his fragility but, shorn of the biographical focus of the first book, this is a rather depressing detailing of his journey through pills, booze, OCD and depression. Actual events such as his sacking as manager of Kettering Town or his spell in rehab in Arizona are almost a relief.

Ozone Dad

You don't even need a tangible experience to ink yourself a job these days. The Beckhams have been derided for "writing" books with which they have little involvement – one look at the diaries of young Brooklyn Beckham can show you how little you need to write a book. Look at the Gore family for example. Al Gore is on tour in the UK at the moment, promoting himself as a viable alternative to Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic Nomination race. Which is perfectly acceptable – anyone performing such Lazarus-like career resuscitation deserves our attention. However, it is probably less admirable that his daughter would cash in on his name. Karenna Gore Schiff has released a book, Lighting the Way, which details the nine women that she feels changed America. This is no comment on the quality of the book but on the validity. Why her choice of women? Why only nine? Why should we care? It's probably time for people to only write books when they have something to say. Father Al Gore definitely has something to say. So much interest is being invested in his prizewinning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, that the book inspired by the film is now being rush released. Gore manages to channel his passionate interest in global warming into an effective, digestible account of the major issues and arguments involved, without getting bogged down in the detail. His most effective weapon is his credibility, since he was the one tagged as "Ozone Man" while running for office in the early 1990s.

The War on Spin on Terror

Conspiracy theorists will have been watching the Bush-appointed head of the CIA, Kenny Goss. Parachuted in to tidy up after a series of leaks and betrayals, his departure is now being seen as a symbol of the loss of control of "the message". Valerie Plame, the glamorous wife of Ambassador Joseph Wilson who was outed as a CIA agent, is now to publish her own version of events. Wilson is already the bestselling author of The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War, and we can expect his wife's tell-all to cause even greater distress to the Bush administration. The identifying of an undercover agent is seen as a huge betrayal, even in an America bred on similar actions shown in film and television. The CIA is also being sued by an ex-employee for making unauthorised deletions to his book. TJ Waters documented his year of spy training in Class 11: Inside the CIA's First Post-9/11 Spy Class. After having the book initially cleared, numerous revisions were requested by Mr Goss. It seems that the US has never managed to reconcile the conflicting goals of freedom of information and national security. The only solution is the old solution – keep it in the family. As the Bush family line up younger son Jeb for a run at 2008, we see former Bush spokesman Scotty McClellan's mom is running for Governor of Texas. This is further trouble for American thriller writer Kinky Friedman, who has made good his promise to run in the gubernatorial race. Friedman has now collected the 160,000 signatures he needs to put himself on the ballot as an independent candidate to run against McClellan's mother, a local republican.