SLEB is the book Ben Elton has been unsuccessfully trying to write for years.

While his recent offerings have been heavy-handed dross, peppered with two-dimensional, woefully-unfunny characters in mind-numbingly obvious situations, this is a stonking satire with a truly unique take on life. And just to rub salt into the wound, Sleb is Andrew Holmes' first novel.

This pitch black comedy about the fall and rise of an alcoholic nobody, who makes his name by forcing his way into the home of the country's top pop star at gunpoint, is right on the money.

It's a thriller, a comedy, a whodunit, a farce. It is also packed to its bright orange chequerboard cover with the undiluted rage of its relentlessly unpleasant, though somehow strangely charming, protagonist.

Believe me, a couple of hours in this man's company will leave you desperate for more and desperate for a bath in equal measure.

Great, grubby stuff.

Updated: 16:24 Tuesday, March 25, 2003