Titchmarsh book will be Christmas favourite

Ulrika Jonsson told a heart-rending story of rape and sexual torment while Edwina Currie revealed former Prime Minister John Major wore "big blue underpants".

Newspapers revelled in this year's scandalous celebrity memoirs, but a new survey reveals it is Alan Titchmarsh's book of less than steamy gardening secrets most Britons want for Christmas.

Titchmarsh, 53, reveals in Trowel And Error that his dark side extends to being "a bit gloomy now and then" but it seems his flower bedside manner has won him more fans than tabloid stars.

The gentle burr of the Ground Force presenter's north Yorkshire brogue may have prompted the Queen to tell him, as he received an MBE last year: "You've given a lot of ladies a lot of pleasure."

In a pre-Christmas survey of 1,000 customers, Waterstone's found that Titchmarsh's memoirs beat books by Jonsson, Currie, Roy Keane and Kylie Minogue to take top spot after winning a quarter of the votes.