People Push Bottles Up Peaceniks by Vernon Coleman (Blue Books, £8.99)

IS it a funny book? Is it serious? Is it a spoof of The People? Is it one of those How to.. books?

If anyone needs to make the plea not to judge a book by it's cover, then it's Coleman.

Until this year, the author had, for more than a decade, been a columnist for The People. Then, the US and the UK went to war with Iraq and when the paper refused to print two of his articles which questioned the morality of the invasion Coleman resigned.

"I maybe old-fashioned and out-of-date," he reflects, "but it seems to me that when a newspaper censors a writer in order to protect the Government line it stops being a newspaper and becomes, well something well-fitted to move straight from the newsagent's counter to the cat litter tray."

The People may be the whipping boy in this attempt to set the record straight, but the real target is the world's "bully" (the US) and Tony Blair, about whom Coleman has not one good word to say...

"Devious and deceitful seem to me to describe the Prime Minister far more closely than honest, decent, sincere or courageous.

"In the years of New Labour Government I don't think I have had one letter supporting or defending the oleaginous, cryptorchid Blair."

He maintains the case for war was built on deceit and lies and asks how you can fight a war for freedom and truth to suit particular needs?

For the record, Coleman explains the difference between a journalist and a columnist, pointedly remarking that a newspaper isn't a group of journalists and: "It certainly isn't the editor.

"Like it or not, readers buy a newspaper not because of what it is, but what they think it is. When a newspaper stops being what the readers perceive it to be then it stops being the newspaper it was.

"Without readers there is no newspaper.

"The only two things a newspaper can't do without are writers and readers. Editors won't like it but the heart and soul of a newspaper belongs not to them but to the readers."

The argument is that The People should have allowed Coleman to publish a column expressing his concerns and what the paper censored is obviously printed in the book.

The day that Coleman resigned his wife bought him a copy of the Beano.

He recalls: "It cost exactly the same as The People... it would take me longer to read... the Beano was more honest and was better value."

So, what have we here? Sour grapes from a pen filled with vitriol? The ravings of an egotistical sycophant? Or a brave blow for the truth in a world of political spin?

That's one judgement you'll have to make for yourself.

David Chapman