Gordon Brown never forgave Blair

It was all well documented in previous biographies which left the abiding impression that the two most powerful people in the government needed relationship counselling.

Now political journalist Andrew Rawnsley has revisited and updated the feud in a book which has undone all the work the two men have recently done in trying to look like blood brothers.

Technicolor account

Meanwhile another political writer, Julia Langdon, has revealed the depth of the rift between former Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam and Mr Blair - amongst others.

Once again her account - which has been read by Dr Mowlam and left unaltered - confirms in technicolor what had already been the basis of much gossip in Westminster.

The prime minister, with ample help from right-hand-man Peter Mandelson, isolated and even humiliated her during her time in Belfast.

Mo Mowlam: sidelined in Belfast

Once again the usual dismissive comments have come from government sources and we are told ministers are far too busy getting on with running the country to worry about such trivia.

Unfortunately, the impression given in the biographies is that cabinet ministers are far too busy bitching and plotting amongst themselves to have time to run the country.

And attempts to suggest all these stories have been "got up by the media" or were invented to sell books, or the more lucrative serialisation rights, is patently laughable.

This is far more than just a case of "where-there's-smoke-there-must-be-fire", the latest accounts have the ring of complete authenticity.

Payback time

Ministers must be particularly careful in how they attempt to dismiss the Julia Langdon book.

When she leaves office, Dr Mowlam will write her own account of her time in office.

She claims it will "only" concentrate on her time in Belfast - as if to suggest that, as a result, it will be fairly unspectacular.

But this was precisely the time she was being rubbished left, right and centre. So, if she chose, she could turn the book into one of the greatest paybacks in recent political history.

What ministers are dearly hoping is that the books will quickly be forgotten and they can get back to business as normal.

Neither of them has a "killer fact" to compare to author Paul Routledge's revelation of Peter Mandelson's home loan from colleague Geoffrey Robinson which led to their resignations from government.

And the Tories are also being buffeted by the Michael Heseltine autobiography which reveals the full extent of his cabinet rift with then prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

But the Heseltine book is, in political terms, ancient history while the Langdon and Rawnsley books reveal what is happening inside the cabinet and Downing Street now, and you can still smell the blood.

So, while the initial furore will die down, damage will still have been done to the government and to Tony Blair who, after all, has not only presided over the battles, but been at the centre of at least two of them.

The lasting impression will be of a government riven with rivalries, personal hatreds and dark manoeuvrings.