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PEOPLE TEND to have very strong opinions about journalist Toby Young - most of them negative - but that's how he made his name.

Young has made an art out of being a failure.

This quality, both endearing and irritating, is endlessly marketable: you can identify with him, laugh at him, hate him and love him all at the same time.

His first book, How To Lose Friends And Alienate People, became a surprise bestseller after failing to find a publisher for several years. It recounted his attempts as a British writer to "take Manhattan" when he was recruited to work on Vanity Fair magazine. He was so hopeless (and usually drunk and incapable) that his editor had the instruction "Fire Toby" on his to-do list for two years.

Young's attempts to make it big in America see him turn his self-diagnosed "anti-charm" on everyone he meets, attempting to crash Oscar parties, turning up with a stripper at Bring Your Daughter To Work Day and having absolutely no luck in attracting women.

The Sound Of No Hands Clapping is the sequel. Back in England with his tail between his legs, he has managed to clean up his act and bag a girlfriend, Caroline, who emerges as halfheadmistress, half-saint in her efforts, alternately, to reform and withstand Toby's worst behaviour.

Young continues to blunder through life, camping up his social ineptitude. He tells "don't mention the war" jokes as best man at a wedding where the mother of the bride is German. Having talked his pregnant wife into going skiing with him, he refuses to pay for an air ambulance when she injures herself (and, of course, he has no insurance).

Soon, however, opportunity is knocking at his door. Not only are the movie rights to his first book sold but also a famous director (never named because Young knows the wrath of Hollywood would descend upon him, and not even he is that stupid) asks him to write a screenplay. Young, of course, misses the flight the movie mogul books him to the South of France and eventually insults him so badly the whole deal is dropped.

But you get the feeling that, deep down, like Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm, he is basically a good guy. He just wilfully gets involved in situations where he is likely to do something extremely ill-advised. Much of this, I'm sure, is exaggerated for effect - and why not, because it's very funny.

With Toby Young, the weaknesses and strengths pretty much amount to the same thing.

The thing few of Young's detractors (genuine or not) seem to realise is that thousands, if not millions, share his dreams, however pathetic and unlikely: to write a Hollywood screenplay, rub shoulders with the rich and famous, and achieve immortality by creating something truly great.

In admitting all this and actually trying to do it, Young occasionally comes close.

This is why his books sell: we would all love to be as successful a failure as he is.