There’s been much guffawing over the grapefruit at breakfast tables this morning after reading Steve Lewis’s teaser on the forthcoming Bernard Lagan biography of Mark Latham in The Australian .

The time for Latham hagiography – yes, we’re talking about you, Craig McGregor – is well and truly over. It’s warts-and-all time now.

Lewis’s column today included accounts of Latham failing to show due deference to the top end of town. But the article also says that the former Sydney Morning Herald journalist’s book, to be published by Allen & Unwin in July, promises to be one of the most salacious political reads of the past decade.

“Salacious”. That’s an interesting choice of words. We tried to call Lagan this morning to see if he had any other Iron Mark yarns he wanted to share – and too find out a bit more about the salacious side of the story – but it seemed as if he was out of mobile range.

Salacious. Fascinating. There are some interesting yarns on Iron Mark. We’ve always been interested in what was meant by “Mandingo”, for example. The explanation at the Internet Movie Database doesn’t really translate into an Australian political context.