AND SO the Brexit nightmare rolls on and on. I know what the opinion of this newspaper is and the economic argument for Leave is sound, but a smegbucket of predominantly right-wing xenophobia foisted on the nation by the odious David Cameron and presided over by a maggotcluster of Tories with a collective allegiance to the politics of a very parsimonious Ebenezer Scrooge is not for me.

Wednesday’s leadership challenge result provided a prime example of this. Rees Mogg says a 60 odd per cent win is a terrible result for May — but a 52 per cent win for Leave is “the will of the people.” Some logic there, I don’t think. Go and boil your expensively tailored bottom, you studiedly mannered spawn of Bertie Wooster and a velociraptor.

Anyway, in the midst of all this chaos I am off the road, have finished my stories of travels and gigs for the year and now present you with my cultural highlight of 2018.

I am going to concentrate on a single book, one which certainly deserves this accolade as far as I am concerned. Not Today: How I Chose Life by Sophie Cook is beautifully written, heartwarming, courageous and inspirational.

When May called the snap general election last year, local Labour parties had no time to choose candidates, so many constituencies had theirs selected for them, including that of East Worthing and Shoreham. It's my home area and a place where traditionally a dead dog wearing a Tory rosette waltzes in with its decomposing eyes shut.

I went along to hear Sophie introduce herself to our local branch, expecting another in a long line of paper candidates resigned to going through the motions while our activists canvassed elsewhere. She gave a passionate, committed, articulate speech, making it clear that she wasn’t here to make up the numbers — she was here to win, inspired as we all were by the momentous changes in the party since Corbyn’s election.

And she told her story, the one recounted in this book. It's that of an RAF technician, newspaper editor, official photographer for AFC Bournemouth and the Libertines punk band, father of three, tormented to the point of suicide by mental health issues caused by a lifelong feeling she was trapped in the wrong body, finally making the momentous decision to leave her former identity Steve behind and become the Sophie she always felt she was.

Despite the fact that the official policy of our local Labour party was to run a paper campaign and doorstep for the Labour MP in Hove, a group of us rallied round and Sophie threw herself into the campaign body and soul. She gained support from all kinds of unexpected quarters and, with very little financial resources, increased the Labour vote by 114 per cent, slashing the Tory majority by 10,000 votes and making us a marginal.

And the fact that she tells me that she didn’t suffer a single incident of transphobic abuse in all those thousands of door knocks and walkabouts makes me very proud of our little strip of coast just west of, and very different from, Brighton.

This was mirrored at AFC Bournemouth when she told the club authorities of her decision to transition and one of the most heartwarming passages in the book is her description of the response of the club’s manager and players.

In contrast has been the reaction of a minority to trans women in the women’s movement, as mirrored in the pages of this newspaper. This makes me very sad. Socialism is about humanity, communality, diversity and acceptance.

Sophie’s story is an absolute roller-coaster ride and a total page-turner. I can’t recommend it enough. In a series of machinations which my local party comrades know I found totally unacceptable, Sophie was denied the right to remain our parliamentary candidate for the next election and has made the decision to leave organised politics behind her.

Our local party’s loss is the wider community’s gain as, undaunted, she moves into the next chapter of an eventful and inspirational life.

As she says in the last three words of her book, to be continued ...

Not Today: How I Chose Life by Sophie Cook is available from sophiecook.me.uk