Chris Mullin: A Very Publishing Coup

Chris Mullin, who announced a couple of weeks ago that he is standing down from Parliament at the next election, has just sold his diaries to Profile Books. The book will be published in March 2009.

Andrew Franklin, Profile's Managing Director, said: ‘”Alan Clark meets ‘Yes Minister’ . Few politicians can write and there are still fewer I would want to have dinner with, let alone publish, but this book is exceptional. Chris Mullin absolutely can write. He’s funny, honest and, rare for a politician, self-deprecating. Who else would admit to receiving an invitation scrawled with the words, “this is a very low priority. I suggest we pass it to Chris Mullin”? Whether he’s describing life at the Court of John Prescott, the countdown to the Iraq war or his battle with Number 10 over leylandii hedges his book is pure pleasure from beginning to end”.

Chris Mullin says: “I have wasted no time on feuds and vendettas. I cannot claim to have led a life as colourful as Alan Clark or to have been as well connected as Alastair Campbell. My only claim is to have provided a snapshot of political life in the first part of the twenty-first century. Not just who said what to whom, but what it felt like to be there.”

Of course the real question we all want to know is: when will there be a sequel to A VERY BRITISH COUP? I republished the original novel and then brought out the DVD and Chris always seemed open to writing a sequel. Let's hope he does so.