Couldn't to be blunt get it up

Couldn't, to be blunt, get it up." Then there's the really personal stuff. He had "a boxed set of Yes CDs and waxed purple about numerous dirge-like Seventies synth-rockers". Oh, and agreed with Kathryn that neither of them wanted to see each other using the lavatory. A minor relief to all of us, including Eric no doubt, as things turned out. Apart from his toilet habits, then, most aspects of their brief marriage and break-up found its way into her Observer column.

And then, of course, her book, The Heart-Shaped Bullet - a sort of Bridget Jones meets The Bell Jar in the Conran shop. Nestled among the emotional debris are the sort of details that would mean nothing to a third party but would be unimaginably wounding/embarrassing and surreal in equal measures to The One Involved. Like the fact that "Eric" had a cuddly toy called Bunny, didn't appear to have a best friend, and that he called her "wifey".With Flett's pre-publication publicity - and, goodness, there's enough of it - poor old "Eric" has nowhere left to hide. Certainly not behind that terminally uncool pseudonym (no chance of a dignified "Nick", "Steve" or "Rob").Meanwhile, it wasn't just "Eric" that quaked in his shoes - and we can only suppose that he did - but her other ex-partners too. Another ex who prefers to remain anonymous - and who wouldn't in these circumstances? - is still mortified by the descriptions of their romance. He will only be drawn to say, diplomatically: "We are still good friends but I am unhappy about been written about."Interestingly, once one party comes out in print, those who can follow suit. Dylan Jones, now editor of GQ, lived with Flett for six years and recently wrote about his initial anxieties in one Sunday paper."Every Sunday morning brought another frenzied scan to see if our lives had been invaded," he wrote.

"It was like living, unwittingly, in a docusoap."As it happens, he was pleasantly relieved when he finally read her book. "In truth, I've got more of a walk-on part than a starring role - and what there is of me is quite complimentary."Few get off so lightly, however. And rather fewer get a chance to offer their side of the story in print. Last year, author and journalist Tim Lott wrote a "story" about the break-up of his marriage for Granta magazine His wife Sarina was appalled She told one journalist: "It was too personal, too raw It hurt. I didn't want it out."Before that, Hanif Kureishi ventured into similar territory when he wrote, quite brutally, about his failed marriage in his novel, Intimacy, upsetting more than one member of his own family in the process.In defence of a piece he was proud of, Lott has said: "We are over-sensitive about not tearing away those veils...