I spluttered over my cornflakes as I heard Alan Johnson declaring on the BBC's airwaves about his beleaguered Cabinet colleague Dr John Reid: "He's not exactly Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, you know", writes Rebecca Smithers
I was immediately catapulted back to my own childhood, and my own memories of the twee but enjoyable late 19th century American children's novel written by Kate Douglas Wiggin, but immortalised by Shirley Temple in the better-known 1938 film.
How many 50-something blokes would admit to having read a book like this pored over by little girls in short white socks?
In any case, Mr Johnson's surprising revelations about his unlikely reading (or viewing) habits have prompted a surge of interest in the character of the mysterious Rebecca Randall by political pundits in a bid to discover whether his comments - thought at the time to be a compliment - were actually a put-down.
Experts in bucolic American literature have been tracked down for their views on whether she was a sickening Goodie Two Shoes, a pushover, or even - shock horror - a bully.
Mass Googling has thrown up reviews of the film and everything you ever wanted to know about Rebecca. And no, not the one written about by Daphne du Maurier.
Given my own name, I received countless copies of the book as both Christmas and birthday presents, but eventually found on a dusty bookshelf my surviving much-loved, well-thumbed copy inscribed by my late grandmother on the occasion of my eighth birthday.
On the front of the faded yellow paper cover is a drawing of Rebecca Randall herself, resplendent with a thick dark plait and parasol and wearing a buff calico dress "starched within an inch of its life".
Once I started reading the first chapter I couldn't put it down. My memories came flooding back of how I viewed the perfect Rebecca - a star pupil at school and a role model... So it was a put-down by Johnson, unless he had been referring to the film... which bears little resemblance to the novel itself.
As my colleague, diarist Jon Henley observes of Dr Reid's chances of metarphosing into Rebecca: "Unkinder souls than ours... might observe that since the ex-defence minister, leader of the Commons, party chairman, Northern Ireland secretary, transport minister, armed forces minister and Scottish secretary has done just about everything else, he soon could be...." The mind boggles.
