Hugo Rifkind keeps enemies away from anthology launch

"It's a shame I haven't invited anyone I've parodied in the book," Hugo Rifkind reflected at the launch at the Great Northern Hotel last night of My Week, a collection of his weekly spoof diaries in The Times.

But perhaps he made the right decision.

“For most of my life Craig Brown has been the best parodist but I think Hugo now holds that title,” fellow Times columnist Matthew Parris told me over a glass of Billecart-Salmon Brut. “He’s been so intensely rude to so many famous names that he must be nervous.”

But whose wrath to fear most? “George Galloway,” replied Rifkind. “He’s the only one who’d really bother suing.”