Born Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, to most of us he is just 'Boris' - the only politician of the age to be regarded in such familiar, even affectionate terms. Uniquely, he combines comedy with erudition, gimlet-eyed focus with jokey self-deprecation, and is a loving family man with a roving eye. He is also supremely ambitious, but with no apparent ambitions - beyond, perhaps, power itself.
The first forensic account of his remarkable rise, Just Boris unravels a political celebrity and asks whether the Mayor who dreams of crossing the Thames to Downing Street has what it takes to be Prime Minister.