Book of the week: This is the One: Sir Alex Ferguson - The Uncut Story of a Football Genius. by Daniel Taylor

Working on the Manchester United beat, like the football writer Daniel Taylor, must feel like being a minor functionary in the court of a sometimes benevolent despot. Your continuing existence there depends on the whims of His Nibs; a word of backchat might lead to banishment, or worse. And God forbid you should write something he disagrees with.

The northern reporters never know which Sir Alex Ferguson they're going to get as they gather apprehensively: will he bounce in with a song on his lips and a teasing joke ready for one of his favourites? Or will it be a mini-hairdryer for some hapless hack?

Taylor's rollicking diary account of the last two seasons covering United portrays a man obsessed with the media. Though his assessment of their judgements might be withering, his inability to let even the mildest of criticism pass him by is unwavering. Ask the BBC, to whom Ferguson has not uttered a word for years.

Take a press conference at random, the day after United had beaten Benfica. The Times man asks about Paul Scholes, who had been given a slightly different role, further forward than usual. Ferguson bristles. "Different? Different from when? ... I'm not explaining anything to you ... I wouldn't want to blunt your imagination with the facts." As he gets up to go, one of the reporters murmurs, "Thank you." Another glares. "And who are you to decide it's finished?" He's not half as cheerful when they lose.

He clearly relishes the sparring. When the reporters turn up at the airport on the first day of a new dress code, he looks them up and down and tells them, "You look like a bunch of Bombay moneylenders."

Sometimes his humour is a private matter. One Friday the usual presser passes off well, a sunny Ferguson cracking jokes about Scotland's international record; half an hour later, the hacks are in their regular greasy-spoon haunt when their mobiles start ringing: Roy Keane is leaving. One pictures Fergie sitting in his office doubled up laughing.

And don't cross him; he won't forget. Arsenal fan Piers Morgan conducted a bitter feud with him when he was Daily Mirror editor. After Morgan's sacking, the paper's sports editor approaches Ferguson at a dinner and asks if there was anything he can do to repair relations.

"Yes," Ferguson tells him. "You can fuck off and die."