Blunkett lined up to pocket £500,000 for memoirs deal

Published on Tuesday 3 January 2006 11:47

FORMER Cabinet minister David Blunkett is set to be offered £500,000 as an advance for his autobiography.

Mr Blunkett, who resigned twice from the Cabinet, is understood to have kept all his e-mails and papers in anticipation of writing a book.

Publishers are poised for a bidding war fuelled by the prospect of Mr Blunkett's personal account of his battle to establish the paternity of his son William with his former married lover Kimberley Quinn, the publisher of the Spectator.

Mr Blunkett, Britain's first blind Cabinet minister, was at the centre of power for more than a decade, but was forced to quit for a second time last November.

Richard Milner, the non-fiction publisher of Pan Macmillan, estimated that his memoirs would secured an advance of 500,00 for a "significant serial deal and full disclosure".

Alan Samson, the publisher of W&N Books, part of the Weidenfield Empire, added: "We'd be very keen to publish.

"There is a hugely interesting political story because he was very close to Tony Blair. The human side in the fall from grace, not once but twice, is fascinating. There is also the human interest angle because of the battle over his child."

A spokesman for Mr Blunkett refused to comment on whether he had been approached by any literary agents.