THE chances are Tory leader Michael Howard and former Prime Ministers John Major and Margaret Thatcher would never have been caught with the late censorship campaigner Mary Whitehouse and Labour grandee Roy Jenkins in an orgy together.
But for any of you curious – or perverse – enough to wonder what it might have looked like, cartoonist Martin Rowson has done his best to help.
His cover for Andrew Holden’s Makers and Manners: Politics and Morality in Postwar Britain (Methuen, £20) was presented to the Netherhall Gardens, Hampstead author at the book’s launch on Tuesday night.
Andrew was joined by his mentor, Professor Peter Hennessey, journalists and politicians at Westminster bookshop for the launch.
Historian Hennessey said: “I told him to ‘go wild, go fruity and go fast’ and I think he managed that.”
But Andrew came over all coy when I asked him how many of the obscene acts detailed in his book he had attempted.
He told me: “What is more interesting is that the male equivalent of nymphomania was left off the original official list of obscene acts.
“I had to find out what it was before adding it.”
For those of you who are interested, it’s satyriasis: a morbid, overpowering sexual desire in men.

Christian feels wheely good about Mayor Ken

A FUNNY thing happened to transport guru Christian Wolmar on the way to a talk planned for a West Hampstead amenity group.
His bike was stolen en route – and in a novel manner.
Christian, (pictured) who lives in Tufnell Park, had double-locked his bike to what he thought was a working lamp post while visiting his solicitor in Caledonian Road. Then he came out to find it had vanished.
Somehow, the thieves had managed to lift the machine up from the ground and over the lamp post.
“I forgot to check whether the lamp post had a lamp attached – and, unfortunately, it didn’t, he told me.
So the determined Christian hopped onto a bus for the meeting organised by pressure group, West Hampstead Amenity and Transport (What).
Christian, who has just published a tome on London Underground called The Subterranean Railway, (Atlantic Books, £17.99) soon began to entertain the What audience with his views on Transport for London, of which he is a great fan.
“It’s a definite success,” he said. “I’d give it eight out of ten.”
Christian, who beavered away as a Camden council press official in the 1980s, believes Ken Livingstone has done a great job – despite inheriting a mess. Both the congestion charge and attempts to tackle the chaotic bus system have paid off.
“You should never underestimate Ken – he is a very canny politician,” he said.

Stamp of approval for Paula’s painting

I WAS pleased to see Camden so well represented at the South Bank Show awards on Sunday.
Apart from our Camden Town playwright Alan Bennett who won an award, with his usual extreme modesty, at the ceremony on Sunday, artist Paula Rego and TV funny man Matt Lucas also pulled off prizes.
Lucas from West Hampstead, I am told, is behind a very amusing comedy called Little Britain awash with catchphrases.
Rego, whose studio is in Camden Town, wasn’t too sure who he was either. “I only watch Eastenders,” she told me – though she watched her friend Germaine Greer in Big Brother.
“I thought she was wonderful and courageous to go on that bloody show,” said Rego.
She also had some delightful news for me: That her Jane-Eyre-inspired pictures at a Mayfair gallery are to appear on a new issue of stamps from the Royal Mail coming out in March.