It’s great to work with lazy Julie Burchill

Who knew laziness could be such a virtue? The pop biographer Chas Newkey-Burden — author of unauthorised tomes on Simon Cowell, Justin Bieber and others — was recently asked by IdeasTap magazine what it was like working with Julie Burchill, with whom Chas co-authored a compendium of modern hypocrisy in 2008.

“I think you have to pick very carefully who you work with. You’ve got to have a mutually enhancing temperament,” he said. “She won’t mind me saying this but Julie’s natural inclination is laziness.

“I’m very industrious. If we were both hard workers we would have rubbed up against each other.” Quite the modern-day Jack Sprat.