Nigel Lawson, `the iron chancellor' of Great Britain in the 1980s, has devised a diet book well suited to his character. It is basically a set of rules he rigidly sticks to, firstly, to lose weight and later to maintain weight.

The rules work but you can't help feeling, much like his economic politics, it would still work without such a high degree of deprivation - a bit more flexibility would be more fun.

Rules include: no alcohol; no sugar, no dairy products. He takes a `if it isn't hurting, it isn't working' approach. It worked. He lost 12 inches off his waist-line and five stones in under a year.

But the fast (too fast?) weight-loss took its toll. His skin hung loose on his body. Some of the recipies are Englsh country squire and that has an appeal. Try pheasant and apple casserole, duck and pigeon slices in coulis sauce and light cheese souffle. I can visualise the formal dining room, wax-polish on antique tables and the silver cutlery.

The joy of the book is not the diet itself but I would recommend anyone read it.He is an ex-journalist so he can WRITE. He loves gourmet food and some of the recipes are first-class as well as slimming. His success story in slimming is frank, witty and inspiring and it's a lighter side of political history. ( )