Friday, August 13, 2010

Bush to join Blair on Random list this autumn

12.08.10 | Graeme Neill in The Bookseller

Former US president George W Bush's account of 9/11, the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina and the controversial 2000 presidential election will be published in the UK by Random House this autumn. The memoir will be published simultaneously in the US, Canada and United Kingdom in hardback, e-book and audiobook on 9th November, priced in the UK at £25.

Virgin Books bought UK and Commonwealth rights to Decision Points from Crown Publishers in the United states. The book will join other political big-hitters this autumn, with fellow Random House author Tony Blair's memoir published next month, HarperCollins' Peter Mandelson memoir, which was published last month and a forthcoming book on the economy from Simon & Schuster by Gordon Brown.

Since leaving office, Bush has given virtually no interviews about his presidency, instead writing the memoir, which Virgin described as "strikingly personal and candid". The publisher added: "This groundbreaking new brand of memoir will be centred on the 14 most critical and historic decisions in the life and public service of the 43rd president of the United States."

It said: "In gripping and never before head detail, President Bush brings readers inside the Texas Governor's Mansion on the high of the hotly contested 2000 election; aboard Air Force One on 9/11 in the gripping hours after America's most devastating attack since Pearl Harbour; inside the Situation Room in the moments before launching the war in Iraq; and behind the Oval Office desk for his historic and controversial decisions on the financial crisis, Hurricane Katrina, Afghanistan, Iran, and other issues that have shaped the first decade of the 21st century."

Bush will also discuss his decision to quit drinking, his faith and relationships with his family.

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