GONE BY LUNCHTIME

Brash’s new autobiography was the talk of Parliament yesterday, and may be quickly on the way to becoming a best seller.

went on sale yesterday, detailing the career of Brash, who was both Reserve Bank governor and National Party leader. Within hours several bookstores had sold out of the book, including some at airports and Paper Plus on Lambton Quay. ‘‘We have just pushed the reprint button,’’ a spokeswoman for publishers Troika Books said yesterday. ‘‘It’s game on!’’ bedroom motel unit in Blenheim in December 2004,’’ Brash wrote.

‘‘We were both of the view that he was my logical successor.

‘‘The plan was for me to lead the National Party to victory in the 2005 election, for me to be prime minister and him to be minister of finance, and then for me to hand over the reins to him during the 2005-2008 parliamentary term.’’

Speaking in Blenheim yesterday, where he was accompanying the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge as part of their official visit, Key indicated he remembered the meeting.

‘‘We certainly did stay in a motel, there was a two-room motel, we stayed in that motel room,’’ Key said, making no attempt to deny the agreement existed.

‘‘There were lots of discussions over that time. I don’t think there was any sort of formal agreement, and how things might have played out, who knows?

‘‘In the end we didn’t win that election and the rest is history.’’

Brash also wrote that he was now ‘‘persona non grata’’ in the National Party.