AGENDA'S nose has been firmly between the pages of Business As Usual...

The Miquel Way, the biography of erstwhile Lees and Bells Whisky supremo Raymond Miquel. Therein are some interesting details about the boardroom coup at sweetmaker Lees that saw Miquel ousted in favour of his son Clive in 2009 nearly 20 years after he rescued it from ruin.

The book, which is written by Karen Cunningham but feels like a third-person autobiography, reveals that the split was over Miquel's desire to invest in a chop and ale house and mini-hotel near Edinburgh. This turns out to be the Champany Inn at Linlithgow, favourite eatery of the First Minister among others.

Miquel had concocted a plan with Clive and Anne Davidson, owners of the formerly Michelin-starred steak restaurant, to help it expand as a means of diversifying Lees out of sweets.

While the mind boggles at the thought of macaroons and snowballs being laid before the fine diners, we learn that Miquel had known in the months leading up to the coup that his son was against this plan.

But until September 2009 he thought he had the crucial backing of long-term shareholder and ally Klaus Perch-Neilsen. When he learned otherwise, with echoes of agreement from other board members, he stepped down.

No doubt his fellow directors thought that such a radical departure from the main business would be too maverick to justify, especially after the disastrous 2007 £2.5 million takeover of Patisserie UK (though Miquel was on sick leave and has said he would not have bought it).

The book rounds off with a succinct answer to those Miquel critics, perhaps including those at Lees, who believe he has been too dominant in companies over the years. "He prefers to define it as leadership," it says.