In 2004, when he was MP for Henley and the prospect of becoming prime minister seemed the stuff of fiction, Boris Johnson wrote a comic political thriller called Seventy-Two Virgins: A Comedy of Errors. It received mixed reviews, sold a healthy 46,000 copies and then slipped into obscurity.

Fifteen years later, as Mr Johnson moves into Downing Street, it is time to re-examine this curious novel, for it contains clues to the prime minister’s views on a range of subjects: Islam, America, terrorism and women. There are many women. They are, invariably, buxom.

Boris Johnson was a backbench MP in 2004 when he rattled off his only novel, whose hero is a bicycle-riding classicist MP JEREMY SELWYN/ANL/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

Writing novels is a Johnsonian family tradition (Mr Johnson’s father and sister have both written fiction); previous novelist-prime ministers include Disraeli and Churchill; recent politicians who have written novels include Iain