Lord Ashcroft is to write a biography of Liz Truss. The former Conservative peer, who has also served as Conservative Party treasurer, made the announcement within minutes of Ms Truss being announced as the new Tory leader and new Prime Minister today.
He said: “I have watched the Conservative Party leadership campaign with great interest over the past eight weeks. Now that the results are in, I am pleased to announce formally that I will be writing a biography of the new party leader and Britain’s new Prime Minister, Liz Truss.”
He added: “I know that Harry Cole, the political editor of The Sun, and James Heale, the diary editor of The Spectator, are currently working together on a book about Ms Truss. According to my contacts in the publishing industry, their effort – which is apparently being produced with the co-operation of Ms Truss and her wider family – will be published this autumn. My project will be different. As with all of my previous political biographies, my book on Ms Truss will be accurate, objective, open-minded, fair, factual and even-handed. It will also be independent.”
Lord Ashcroft said that preliminary research he had done on Ms Truss’s life, career and character had proved “fascinating”. He said: “It has always been my intention to incorporate into this book an analysis of Truss’s first year in office. One of my hopes is that this biography might serve as a valuable guide to the electorate in the months leading up to the next general election, which must be held by 2024.” The book will include comprehensive polling data carried out by Lord Ashcroft plus the reflections of focus groups concerning voters’ appetite for a fifth successive Conservative term in government under Ms Truss.
Lord Ashcroft, who is an international businessman and philanthropist as well as being a pollster and an author, has published biographies of David Cameron, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer in recent years. He said: “I believe that Liz Truss will prove just as rewarding a subject. The multiple challenges that she faces in every department would test even the most experienced leader. Is Ms Truss up to the job? I hope to be able to answer that question when my book on her is published in the latter half of 2023.”
Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC is an international businessman, philanthropist, author and pollster. For information on his work, visit www.lordashcroft.com. Follow him on Twitter and/or Facebook @LordAshcroft.
Biteback Publishing has acquired Islands: Searching for truth on the shoreline by BBC Home Editor Mark Easton, to be published in October 2022.
No man is an island, wrote John Donne. Easton argues the opposite: that we are all islands, and it is on the contradictory shoreline where isolation meets connectedness, where ‘us’ meets ‘them’, that we find out who we truly are.
In this personal exploration of our fascination with islands and ‘islandness’, Easton chronicles a sweep of 250 million years of history: from Pangaea, the supercontinent mother of all islands, to the first intrepid islanders pointing their canoes over the horizon, to his own journeys of discovery among the hidden corners of our world. Roaming from Arran to Antigua, he illustrates how understanding islands and island syndrome might help humanity get closer to the truth about itself.
Mark Easton joined the BBC in 1986 before being appointed Political Editor at Channel 5 News in 1996 and Home and Social Affairs Editor at Channel 4 News in 1998. He returned to BBC News as Home Editor in 2004, a post he still holds.
Olivia Beattie, Editorial Director at Biteback, acquired UK Commonwealth rights excluding Canada from Andrew Gordon at David Higham Associates.
Easton said: ‘My ambition in this book is to investigate the almost magical qualities of the encircling shoreline, to chronicle the journey of physical islands and explore the psychological islands that form the great archipelago of humankind. If you want to get a better understanding of the human condition in all its impossible complexity, islands are good places to go.’
Beattie said: ‘With memories of lockdown still blisteringly fresh, Mark’s exploration of the boundaries between isolation and connection, between individuality and the wider world, between “us” and “not us”, has a remarkable resonance. Islands is a deep dive into geography, myth, literature, politics and philosophy, but above all it’s an inventive and hugely original insight into how cultures bloom and how geography shapes human nature.’
Islands: Searching for truth on the shoreline will be published on 11 October, accompanied by a major publicity campaign.
For more information please contact suzanne.sangster@bitebackpublishing.com
Biteback snaps up 'gripping and accessible' account of lead-up to Ukraine war by Puri
Published 11/08/2022
Biteback Publishing has snapped up a “gripping and accessible” account of the key moments leading to the Ukraine war by former diplomat Samir Puri.
Olivia Beattie, editorial director, acquired world rights to Russia’s Road to War with Ukraine: Invasion Amidst the Ashes of Empires from Darryl Samaraweera at Artellus. It will publish 25th August 2022.
The synopsis says: “Russia has brought bloodshed and suffering to Ukraine at the behest of Putin’s vision of a greater Russian sphere of influence. For their part, however, some of the Western countries that dominate the EU and NATO have over several years unrealistically raised Ukraine’s expectations of joining these bodies, while others have dashed them, leaving Ukraine without formal allies and fatally exposed to Russian aggression.
“Russia’s Road to War with Ukraine is a gripping and accessible exploration, peppered with eye-witness accounts, of the key moments of drama leading to the 2022 invasion, offering insights into the missed opportunities to avert the war.”
Discover more here
