Few political exposés are actually worth reading, once the splashy news stories garnered by a quick skim have been published. Michael Wolff’s Fire And Fury: Inside The Trump White House is different.

Yesterday it provided some eye-popping anecdotes — how Trump constructs his comb-over, his nasty tricks on the wives of his friends, Melania’s tears when she realised he might win the presidency, Steve Bannon’s utter contempt for Donald Jr’s stupidity in meeting the Russians, etc.

But, although full of startling disclosures, this book amounts to much more than a treasure trove of gaffes and inanities. It is ferociously well-written and pitilessly focused — and it is destined to become the primary account of the first nine months of the Trump presidency. Wolff references Bob Woodward’s book about the Clinton administration, The Agenda, and David Halberstam’s book The Best And The Brightest, about the US establishment in the Vietnam years, as defining epochs — and Fire and Fury belongs in that company.