PM weighs in on unauthorised bios

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says it is ‘‘awkward’’ to have two books written about her.

Stuff correspondent Michelle Duff’s Jacinda Ardern: The story behind an extraordinary leader was released on Monday and The Spinoff staff writer Madeleine Chapman has a book entitled Jacinda Ardern: A new kind of leader due out in early 2020.

Ardern told Stuff that she did not sit for interviews with the authors and the books were unauthorised.

‘‘What’s the technical phrase for it? They are unauthorised,’’ Ardern said.

Asked how she felt about it, Ardern said: ‘‘Oh it’s awkward, that’s how I would describe it. You know you can’t stop people doing what they wanted to do – but for me it feels awkward.’’

It’s understood her office is uncomfortable with the books’ focus on Ardern at this time in her prime ministership.

Ardern was comfortable writing a chapter for and helping launch Stardust and Substance, an academic work focused on the 2017 election itself rather than just her.

The prime minister’s international image has risen massively since the March 15 terror attacks, and her subsequent response to them.

She has been interviewed in The New York Times, the New Yorker, by CNN, and was included in several power lists.

Her name has been mentioned several times by the candidates vying to be the Democratic candidate for the US presidency in 2020.

Ardern is far from the first prime minister to have an unauthorised book written about her.

Former prime minister John Key had an unauthorised biography written about him in 2014 by NZME’s John Roughan, six years into his term.

Former Prime Minister Helen Clark had several books written about her – from both very favourable and very unfavourable standpoints.

In recent decades New Zealand prime ministers have mostly broken away from the political tradition of writing memoirs.

Clark did not write a memoir but did release a collection of her speeches, and authorised an oral history of her life. Both were released well after she left office.

Former prime minister Jim Bolger wrote a book about his time in power entitled A View From The Top, which he released in 1998 soon after leaving office. Other prime ministers such as David Lange and Robert Muldoon wrote memoirs about their time in politics.

‘‘Oh it’s awkward, that’s how I would describe it.’’