"We live in boring times," laments the author in the first sentence of his introduction, before embarking on 278 pages which can only, alas, add another few pounds to the net weight of the world's boredom burden. Nigel, however, has been busily piling up the pounds for years; this is the sixth in a series which began, improbably, with Sex Lives of the Kings & Queens of England and Sex Lives of the Popes. The style is racy and occasionally even funny, but nothing can disguise the "nudge, nudge" nature of the "information" on offer, most of which has, in any case, been trotted out ad nauseam elsewhere.A.W.