Whether his subject is Islam, goats, Kate Moss, a missing sock, Daktari or duff English, his prose is laser-sharp, clear as sunlight and irrepressibly funny. Down Boy is Joe’s ninth collection of columns.

Joe Bennett is English by birth and was raised in Brighton - a town once described as looking as if it was helping the police with their enquiries.

He went to Cambridge University and then, for want of any better ideas, taught English in Spain, France, Canada and, from 1987, at Christ’s College, New Zealand.

He ran away from the classroom in 1998 to become a newspaper columnist. He writes weekly columns which are syndicated to various daily newspapers in New Zealand, appears weekly on breakfast television as a raconteur and makes after dinner speeches all over the country.

He has been voted columnist of the year at the Qantas Media Awards three times.

Joe lives on a hill in Lyttelton with some animals.