Mark Thomas is one of the UK's most effective and best-known political activists, as well as being a highly successful stand-up comedian. His show, ''The Mark Thomas Product'', ran for six highly acclaimed series on Channel Four. Amazingly, this is his first book. ''As Used On the Famous Nelson Mandela'' is a deeply funny, deeply disturbing account of Mark's rampage through the arms trade. Under a fairly flimsy disguise and with the use of some worryingly poor accents, Mark set off on a journey of discovery in the company of arms dealers, torture victims, politicians, cops, crusties and geeks. The result is a shockingly entertaining read. Embedded within the sharpness of his humour is the truth of an industry fraught with loopholes, complacency and greed; that allows corrupt regimes to kill, maim and displace, but whose deals are often subsidised by the British taxpayer. Hard-hitting, laugh-out-loud funny and extremely unsettling, ''As Used on the Famous Nelson Mandela'' is never anything less than compulsive.