Cameron to ‘go dark’ and write memoir that’ll net him millions
DAVID CAMERON is planning to spend his first year after Downing Street writing his autobiography – with the aim of beating the whopping £4.6million advance Tony Blair received for his memoir.
The former Prime Minister intends to ‘go dark’ over the coming months, making only the most sparing interventions on the domestic political scene and taking a vow of silence over Theresa May’s performance.
The book – which will track his rise to power via Eton, Oxford and the Conservative Research Department, the arguments of Coalition, the party split over the EU referendum and the astonishingly dramatic and emotional circumstances of his downfall – offers the perfect way to occupy his time while keeping a low profile. Friends say that Mr Cameron is also looking at setting up a ‘life chances foundation’, dedicated to improving opportunities for the most disadvantaged in society – but is worried that it might be seen as ‘interfering’ with Mrs May’s Government.
Mr Cameron – who once described himself as ‘the heir to Blair’ – will hope to match Mr Blair’s A Journey, which became the fastest-selling autobiography of all time when it was published in 2010. Mr Blair donated the advance and all royalties to the Armed Forces charity The Royal British Legion.
Although Mr Cameron’s colleagues describe him as a ‘fast and fluent’ writer, they predict that he will seek help on the project from former Downing Street policy adviser Christopher Lockwood, an ex-journalist on The Economist, or Tory peer Lord Finkelstein, a writer on The Times.
So far, only unauthorised writers have chronicled Mr Cameron’s life – including former deputy party chairman Lord Ashcroft’s sensationalist Call Me Dave, which contained discredited allegations about Mr Cameron and a pig dating from his time at university.
Mr Cameron has indicated that he is unlikely to take any big-money jobs over the next 12 months, and will avoid giving media interviews.
An aide said: ‘He will treat the book as a sort of gap year before he re-emerges into the spotlight.
‘Expect the tone to be measured and philosophical – and any score-settling to be subtle.’