A colleague of mine was at a British Cattle Breeders conference last night and had an interesting discussion. Which one person in farming, so someone asked, would be most likely to be able to write a bestseller.

Jonathan (FW's Livestock editor) reckons Margaret Beckett - because if she could throw any light on the whole SFP debacle, loads of people would want to read that! Hilary Benn might also sell a few books - if he explained how he came to his views on TB!

We get sent loads of memoir-style books about the countryside, but I doubt if they sell many copies. The John Nix Pocketbook was always popular when I was a student - but it wasn't exactly bedtime reading. It wasn't exactly a 'bonkbuster' either...