JAMES LEVER Me Cheeta **

The fun idea behind this book is that it's the autobiography of Tarzan's chimpanzee, Cheeta.

In some ways it's quite sad, with Cheeta being represented as a vain, self-deluding figure who thinks he's been plucked from Africa for stardom, and I enjoyed the first one-third of the book.

The trouble is, it's a parody of Hollywood autobiographies ("I remember once meeting David Niven, who told me..."). It's great fun at first, but as soon as you accept the implausibility of a chimpanzee writing such a book it becomes as boring as the autobiographies it imitates.