Whether or not the latest book by Guardian columnist Tim Dowling is intended as a masculine version of Caitlin Moran's How To Be a Woman, there's no denying its enormous readability. Describing itself as "the most romantically unromantic book you'll read this year" is a bold step, but Dowling's frequently hilarious Bildungsroman, detailing his evolution from feckless layabout to equally feckless husband and father, offers wisdom, insight and laugh-out-loud one-liners in equal measure.

Regular readers of his column will recognise the central dramatis personae. His wife is here categorised as someone who, while more competent at everyday life, is as eccentric as him in most regards, a welcome change from the stereotype of the sighing know-it-all prevalent in these books. His children appear less as wisecracking miniature adults and more as actual unruly children, prone to humiliating him in new and unexpected ways in public. And Dowling himself offers a masterclass in self-deprecation, claiming at one point: "Being married is like sharing a basement with a fellow hostage: after five years there are very few offputting things you won't know about one another." This gloriously entertaining book might take no prisoners, but it deserves to do just as well as Moran's.