Wednesday, June 14, 2006

EXCLUSIVE: Bruce Anderson to Write Cameron Biography

Regular readers will know from THIS blogpost that I have little time for Bruce Anderson - a columnist whose influence seems to grow in inverse proportions to his weight, judging by his appearance at last night's Policy Exchange party.

So it was with great hilarity that I learned yesterday that the old Brute is penning a hagiography of David Cameron. I do hope it is more readable than his pitiful and breathless instant hagiography of John Major, published shortly after Major became PM. I suspect the Cameron book will be equally breathless, full of phrases like "The Young Master Cameron" and "The Young Pretender". I shall be delighted to be proved wrong.

I did an Amazon search to find out who was publishing Bruce Anderson's book. As I understand it, it is a small publisher, but it's not listed yet. However, I did find THIS book by a Bruce Anderson. Shurely Shome Mishtake. Mr Anderson is nothing if not a fully red blooded male, as many a young filly will testify to.

There is another biography being written of David Cameron by Francis Elliott and James Hanning of the Independent on Sunday, which is being published by Fourth Estate in the Spring. I know which one I shall be reading...

PS I should declare a slight interest here. I have been thinking of writing a book on David Cameron too, although it would not be a biography in the conventional sense. However, other commitments mean that I am now not likely to have the time to do it within the timescale I had originally planned.
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10 comments:

  1. Kevin DavisJune 14, 2006 12:00 pm

    I have for some time worried about the habit of biographies being written before the subject has actually done anything. This seems a particular habit of the sports publishing industry (Rooney and his girlfriend).

    Still I very much doubt that the BA book will be particularly full of miraculous insight.

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  2. dizzyJune 14, 2006 12:17 pm

    As an Evertonian I have to protest and say Rooney - in football terms - has actually had quite prolific career already.

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  3. nsflJune 14, 2006 12:38 pm

    Hanning is also an old Etonian.

    Some Wednesday Tory trivia: did you know that "Eton" is a place and a dialect in Cameroon? Well, it is. Which of you lazy hacks will be the first to steal that?

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  4. AnonymousJune 14, 2006 12:52 pm

    I find it amazing that Christopher Hitchens co-authored (with Peter Kelner) an 'instant' biography, 'James Callaghan: The Road To Number 10'. It's just not the sort of thing you'd expect such a polemicist to do.

    As official biographies go, Anthony Seldon's John Major biography was very good.

    Off-topic, I look forward to Niall Ferguson answering Hari's attack on him. Hare coursing has been banned, but Hari coursing hasn't.

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  5. AnonymousJune 14, 2006 2:36 pm

    I didn't have to wait long - I've just read Ferguson's trenchant riposte in today's Indy. Telly don 1, half-c*cked b*mfluff scribbler 0.

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  6. James at eParliament.tvJune 14, 2006 5:16 pm

    "The Young Master Cameron" very funny.

    Iain, does anyone know what purpose Bruce Anderson serves?

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  7. AnonymousJune 14, 2006 5:47 pm

    That's what we like about you - your honesty and readiness to declare conflicts of interest (allegedly).

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  8. AnonymousJune 14, 2006 8:12 pm

    Yes, the same purpose for the Independent as the late Eric Heffer for The Times. Both men were hired by the said newspapers to frighten their readers away from, respectively, the Labour and Conservative parties.

    Apart from his harrumphing about b*ggery in a recent column, my favourite Anderson moment was when he chided Portillo for not being sufficiently appreciative of General Franco.

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  9. AnonymousJune 15, 2006 2:55 am

    IIRC no hack could find a publisher for a bio of Hague when he was Tory leader. Did one ever get written, or a life of IDS?

    These books are the biggest duds in the trade. Remember Norman Fowler's memoirs selling under 3,000 copies-- and he was a professional journalist who'd been in the Cabinet for several years.

    Whoever is daft enough to write about a nonentity such as David Cameron ought to be forced to do him at the length of a Victorian prime minister, e.g. Monypenny & Buckle on Gladstone. Let's have a 20,000-word chapter on 'The Carlton PR Years'.

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  10. AnonymousJune 15, 2006 4:59 pm

    Your recollection is slightly flawed, Anon. I don't know if you'd call Jo-Ann Nadler a hack (she's a freelance journalist, I think), but she had a biography of William Hague published by Politico's. Maybe because Politico's judged the numbers right, I have yet to see any remaindered copies.

    I agree, though, that Fowler's memoirs flopped (I've seen plenty of remaindered copies). Jeremy Paxman memorably wondered how on earth Fowler had stayed awake writing them, never mind how the reader was expected to stay awake.

    The last really good political autobiography was Steve Norris's Changing Trains.

    Maybe Alan Johnson's rising star status will be confirmed (or derailed) by a biography. There are already three of Brown, with a fourth (by Julia Langdon) on the way.

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