Estranged wife to tell all about Bush family

The Bush family’s father-son run on the White House has put the Kennedys in second place as a modern political dynasty. It has mostly escaped the perils of political and personal scandal.

Ms Bush, who lives in Texas, seems intent, however, on at least scratching the wholesome image. She has visited Manhattan for talks with publishing executives, the New York Observer newspaper reported yesterday.

In addition, she had a long lunch with the biographer Kitty Kelley, famous for her deeply unflattering 1991 portrait of Nancy Reagan, and who is researching her own book on the Bush family.

Ms Bush is considering serving as a source for Ms Kelley’s book, as well as writing her own, her agent, Wayne Kabak, told the Observer.

Ms Bush has clear motives: she is in the middle of a divorce battle with Neil Bush, and the fight has turned nasty.

Neil Bush has often appeared the weak link in a family that in a decade has won control of the White House twice and the powerful governorships of Texas and Florida.

He was caught in the financial scandal that hit US savings and loan institutions and ensnared the careers of leading politicians during his father’s presidency. He was tied to the failure of the Silverado Banking, Savings and Loan Association, at a cost of $1 billion (635 million) to US taxpayers forced to guarantee its accounts.

The Bush family has not been entirely free of problems. Noelle Bush, the daughter of the Florida governor, Jeb, has been in and out of drug rehabilitation clinics and briefly jailed.

But the image of the elder President Bush as a patrician public servant of the old style, and of his wife Barbara as the popular family matriarch, remains strong.

The second President Bush, despite early problems with alcoholism, has won record high approval ratings through terror and war, touting his teetotal Texan style and his librarian wife. Journalistic probes into his early high-living life - particularly in search of any stories of illegal drug abuse - have mostly not paid off.

Ms Bush is promising to squeeze every cent out of her Bush connections. Her public relations spokesman, Lou Colasuonno, said the book "will be the story of Sharon Bush’s life inside one of the most powerful families in America ... She witnessed the evolution of a dynasty.

"She believes, and is prepared to reveal, that the Bushes are far more pragmatic and calculating than has ever been seen before. She will show that the family orchestrates its public image from top to bottom. She will reveal that the family is in essence a political operation."

Mr Colasuonno hinted Ms Bush was ready to talk about the "dark side" of the Bush family, from Barbara Bush’s influential role to the fraught relations between the brothers.

The Observer claimed to have obtained a deposition from Neil Bush on 4 March, in which he described his marriage to Sharon as "broken" and "loveless".

Speculation has arisen that Sharon Bush is simply manoeuvring to get a better settlement. She has rejected an offer of $1,000 a month, the Observer reported.

Neil and Sharon Bush are the parents of three children - Lauren, a model, and teenagers Pierce and Ashley.