The Duke of Devonshire put his well-polished boot into journalist Robin Oakley in a review of his new book Britain & Ireland’s Top 100 Racehorses of All Time (Corinthian, £16.99). Having listed a series of errors in the work, His Grace (writing as Stoker Devonshire) brought his article to a thunderous conclusion: “This is a lazy little book which, if it were a racehorse, would not be included in any top 100, whatever the criteria.”

The surprise was to find this stinker published in The Spectator, which Oakley serves as racing correspondent. Private Eye thought it strange, too, and said so on the books page of the current issue.

Below the article is Pseuds Corner in which appear, by strange chance, two sentences from Craig Brown’s Mail on Sunday review of John Lennon’s letters: “[These] somehow transcend their surface banality and acquire the bittersweet poignancy bestowed by sudden death. There is something about their rushed, chatty incoherence that echoes the fleeting quality of life on earth.”

Craig Brown is, of course, the supplier of the Eye’s spoof diaries which hilariously parody the writings and utterances of celebrities. Pippa Middleton is his latest victim with her book Celebrate. (“In our family we have a tradition of giving each other presents on Christmas Day.” “New Year’s Eve is traditionally held on December 31st.”) Knowing Craig as I do, I am inclined to suspect that his Lennon review was mischievously planned to secure his inclusion in Pseuds Corner.

If so, he will have had the last laugh on the man who suggested it be placed there — the Eye’s former editor Richard Ingrams.