This peek at Paxman doesn’t provide all the answers

Jeremy Paxman has something of an image problem. This enjoyably waspish autobiography contains an anecdote in which the BBC’s resident Rottweiler is recognised by a fruit seller. “You’re the bloke off the telly,” says the man, before racking his brains and concluding, “Yeah, you’re the ’orrible one.”

A Life in Questions has been written partly to prove that Paxman is not horrible. True, he will always be most famous for savaging cabinet ministers ...