One of the first to appear in court for looting was a 31-year-old teaching assistant: hardly an identikit hooligan.

ECONOMIST: Riots in Britain

Too many projects in London with those words attached are bland and identikit.

ECONOMIST: Why I love Peckham

"Both the prime minister and I are relaxed about the idea that this isn't an identikit government, " Mr Clegg said.

BBC: Nick Clegg calls for royal commission on drugs reform

Thatcher warned an audience at the College of Europe, in the Belgian city of Bruges, against creating an "identikit European personality".

BBC: Prime ministers' speeches on Europe

Identikit executives hiding behind the latest management fad, ambitious role players, time-servers and office politicians may manage to creep to the top.

ECONOMIST: The genuine article | The

Hay was sure Mowbray fitted the identikit, although no one can know whether the Yorkshireman can wrest the league title back from the blue half of Glasgow.

BBC: Mowbray the natural leader

And more to the point, why was Spurs striker Jermain Defoe sitting at home when he is the identikit replacement for Owen, should he pull up short of fitness or need a break?

BBC: SPORT | Football | World Cup 2006 | Teams | England | Eriksson exposed by his Owen goal

Such a book might ignite a campaign for real fantasy, rekindling a desire for moving, vital fantasy that transcends the trilogies of magic elves and dwarves and identikit pastorals that pass for fantasy in today's mass market.

ECONOMIST: Fantasists