(Grove Press)

Take away the dry-as-teetotal bon mots of Roger Sterling from Mad Men and that 60s-set drama would be a different beast altogether. The destructive tendencies of Don Draper, stilted ambition of Pete Campbell and Monroe-esque allure of Joan Holloway would not quite be enough to sustain a show which would then sorely lack a comedic counterpoint which the WW2 navy vet provides by the scotch-sodden bucketload.

In Matthew Weiner’s series, Sterling’s Gold is the proposed title for Roger’s memoir, but here is simply a collection of his finest quips; that might prove a grave disappointment to those expecting something more substantial. But with the silver fox’s voice in your head, who can resist lines such as: ‘I told him to be himself. That was pretty mean, I guess,’ and she died like she lived: surrounded by the people she answered phones for’? The barbs are occasionally so jagged and cranky that Shit An Ad Man Says could have been its title.