THE memoirs of a Paymaster General - hardly a book to have the discerning reader languishing in the library or belting down to the bookshop.

It's more likely to be an avid read for insomniacs, which poses real difficulties for an author wanting to market such a tome.

However, controversy does sell; dishing the dirt on public figures, telling tales of behind the scenes rows, reheating the long-cold ingredients of a political stew.

And so to ex-Paymaster General Geoffrey Robinson's book which has attracted interest purely by attacking one of the Government's most colourful figures, Peter Mandelson.

The Hartlepool MP and Northern Ireland Secretary is a man accused of many things by his critics. According to them he's the one who destabilises the Government. He's the cause of rifts between Cabinet members. He's also accused of raking over old coals, which makes the latest controversy ironic.

When the "home loan affair" raised its head in 1998, Mr Mandelson lost his, the guillotine falling on his career as Trade and Industry Secretary.

The cash repaid, self-imposed punishment was accepted and a year was spent in solitary confinement, before Mr Mandelson was allowed to return to a Government post the envy of no politician.

Mr Robinson resigned his post too and today is on the Government's backbench.

But now Mr Mandelson faces "fresh" calls for an inquiry because the same accusations have been served up again in a book by the man who loaned him the £373,000 to buy a home in London's Notting Hill.

In his book, An Unconventional Minister, Mr Robinson disputes Mr Mandelson's account of how he came to make the loan. There is conflict and dissension about who approached whom for the money.

In his memoir, Mr Robinson claims Mr Mandelson "does have this role of reopening issues when matters are settled." Then he details the conversation over the home loan which led to both of their downfalls.

Downing Street dismisses the rehashed claims as "pretty flat froth". Mr Mandelson is saying nothing. The Tories are calling for a renewed inquiry by the Commons Standards and Privileges Committee.

And the electorate goes about its daily life unaffected and unimpressed by the latest squabble - and trying to avoid bookshops.