There cannot be many Americans who are unaware that Jim Webb’s novels include steamy sex scenes. During what was one of the most bitter Senate races in recent history, the campaign team of George Allen, the Republican senator running for re-election, attempted to tarnish Mr Webb’s reputation by flooding the internet with salacious passages from his books.

The plan backfired. And now Mr Webb finds himself the unlikely standard-bearer of the Democratic party’s narrow takeover of the Senate – only confirmed on Thursday when Mr Allen announced he would forgo his right to a recount in what was a wafer-thin margin of defeat.