For the past two years, Frank Skinner has written a weekly column for The Times. Without fail, he sat down and wracked his brain to think of something to write 900 words about. Dispatches from the Sofa is the brilliant result.

Pondering such random topics as the potential demise of Margaret Thatcher, the love-hate relationship with your football club, the banking crisis and the evil phenomenon of Jedward, this is wit and wisdom, and a fine sense of the absurd, all rolled into one.