Traditionally Christmas book promotions have been all about the celebrity memoir but over recent years their popularity seems to have waned. With a few notable exceptions – Peter Kay, Sharon Osbourne, Frankie Boyle etc – most big name autobiographies seem destined to bomb, hitting publishers extremely hard if you are to believe the insane advances that are meant to have been paid out. So wily publishers are looking for a new tack. Instead of getting the REAL slebs (or their ghostwriters) to write their tomes, they’re cashing in on the ‘fake’ autobiography.

I’m talking about books like Woath It? Coase Ah am, Pet by Cheryl Cole’s alter ego Cheryl Kerl, whose twitter account here has gained ‘her’ (it’s actually a him) thousands of committed followers.

Then there’s A Simples Life, by the meerkat Aleksandr Orlov, an advertising gimmick who has taken on a life of his own.

And finally, there’s Mrs Fry’s Diaries, written by the culture king’s long-suffering ‘wife’ Edna and exposing the cultural king’s secret double life. (‘A good diary should be like a good husband – a constant companion, a source of inspiration and, ideally, bound in leather‘ – Edna Fry.)

However, I am to believe that Edna and Stephen Fry are in fact the same person, can someone please explain to me how he’s managed to write not one but two autobiographies, maintains constant updates on TWO twitter accounts and remains the most ubiquitous man on TV?

Lara Crisp, Managing Editor