Silvio, we hardly knew you – and we still don’t

Non-fiction; My Way: Berlusconi In His Own Words; By Alan Friedman; Biteback Publishing, €26.60

Berlusconi’s biography, while lively in places, predictably gives the controversial Italian tycoon an easy ride Pic: Getty

Silvio Berlusconi once told a friend the secret of his success in business: “I sell smoke.” And by the end of this unexpectedly entertaining but ultimately opaque book, he’s not much easier to pin down than he was at the outset.

Alan Friedman, a former Vanity Fair correspondent, based My Way on 100 hours of interviews – not that much for a book of this nature, in truth, and the whole thing clocks ...