He's back, and he's on top

The last time I saw Julian Clary performing he sported a sparkling Carmen Miranda outfit and some dull smut. He was on better form in civvies yesterday evening. To plug the publication of his autobiography, A Young Man's Passage, he opted for dull denim and colourful conversation.

Excerpts highlighted happy-sad bullet points. At school he was beaten, in his twenties he went through men at a breakneck pace. A conquests list sounded like a kinky version of the Generation Game finale. And then came the notorious Norman Lamont incident that torpedoed his career.

He still cannot resist a cheap gag, explaining that he was depressed at the time due to his lover's death "and living in Holloway". Yet a note of decorum crept in. The book is literally warts-and-all, but onstage he refused to discuss a posterior medical complaint already in print.

Smiling nervously, he revealed a happier end. Thanks to his hamfisted hoofing hit on Strictly Come Dancing he's returning to live TV.

He also noted that the nearest he's ever come to meeting Norman Lamont was in these very pages. When his book was reviewed the ex-Chancellor's byline graced the article below. Clary is clearly back on top.