Blunkett set to make millions from memoirs.
Blunkett set to make millions from Memoirs
David Blunkett could make millions from the publication of his memoirs The Blunkett Tapes, details of which were announced yesterday by Bloomsbury Publishing.
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The book, due to be published in October, will lift the lid on the former home secretary’s chequered personal life and coping with blindness, as well as the “debates and personalities” during his time in the Cabinet.
The deal has been negotiated by Blunkett’s literary agent, Ed Victor, whose clients have included Will Self and Iris Murdoch.
Media PR Mark Borkowski said the deal could be worth “millions” to Blunkett, who resigned as home secretary following revelations about his affair with Spectator publisher Kimberly Quinn.
“Obviously it depends what’s in the book but Blunkett has got to look at ways of making money,” said Borkowski.
“He would argue that he’s still in his prime and therefore needs to make a good living. He can certainly expect to reap well in excess of six figures – multiple millions, if he’s struck a good deal and is prepared to blow the lid.”
He added: “Recent events have been a living soap opera and his personal life has been well documented, so he needs to come up with something more than is already out there.
“He will have been wined and dined by all the big literary agents. It’s sex and politics and every one knows him. Plus Tony Blair is such a big name in the US that Blunkett can expect a damn good publicity trail over there.”
However, Borkowski warned that Blunkett will need to be wary of settling old scores. “If he comes across as bitter then that can backfire,” he said.
“As a politician you can spin out of something you might have said but when it’s there in black and white, having gone through various edits and back and forth, then you have to be very careful what you want to put out there.”
In a statement Bloomsbury Publishing promised “a rigorously honest self-portrait as well as an astonishingly cogent and intimate insight into New Labour’s years in power, the personalities, the triumphs and the debates”.
The memoirs will be “unsparing” in their depiction of the past year’s events, as well as Blunkett’s rise from working-class Sheffield lad to high office.
The Blunkett Tapes will be published as a book, a CD, in large print and braille on October 16, putting it on the shelves just over two weeks after Labour’s annual conference ends on September 28.
It was originally recorded on tape as “journals” by Blunkett and has now been transcribed.
Blunkett said: “I have chosen to work with Bloomsbury because they understood the nature of the book I wanted to write and will harness all their publishing expertise to the project.” – London Evening Standard