The book wot I didn't write

Last year, Kerry Katona published her first novel (Tough Love) and I hear the second is due to hit the remainders bin anytime soon. There is little pretence that she has written either book, in the usual sense that ordinary people would understand the phrase: put pen to paper, or fingers to key, to produce an original line of prose. She is simply the brand used to promote a product that Ebury Press no doubt hope will make a lot of money, maybe also becoming unique in the annals of literature for having written more books than she has read.

Ian Fleming also has a new book published this week to mark his centenary. He has had to overcome even greater hurdles than Ms Katona to make it to print, what with him being dead for 44 years. But into his shoes Sebastian Faulks has bravely stepped, and the result is The Devil May Care, which is rather curiously described as being "by Sebastian Faulks, writing as Ian Fleming". Unless Mr Faulks wrote the book while in costume, I'm not sure how he can honestly be described as "writing as Ian Fleming". You'd think he'd have enough trouble writing as Sebastian Faulks, judging from his recent novels. What will be his next turn - staying in bed for 20 years so he can claim to be writing as Proust?

And, so, does the ghostwriter for Tough Love have to claim to be writing as Kerry Katona? That would surely be an assignment too far for even the gamest writer.