Tony Blair’s biography on its way to bookshops

Mar 7 2010 Sunday Sun

THE most eagerly anticipated political biography is on its way to UK bookshops - and Sedgefield is expected to take centre-stage.

Tony Blair announced this week that he had finished putting to paper his experience as an MP and prime minister.

His £25 book will be on the shelves in September and will chart his start as a Sedgefield MP to his stormy relationship with Gordon Brown.

Blair is pictured on the cover looking both solemn but half-smiling, dressed smartly yet informally in black jacket and shirt with the top button undone.

He is expected to make more than £4m from the book, one of the most heavily-anticipated biographies in decades.

Blair wrote the book himself without the use of a ghost writer, according to his publisher.

Blair’s memories of his time in Sedgefield, the launching point for this political career, will feature heavily in the book.

His time served as an MP saw Sedgefield frequently catapulted into the centre of media attention.

And never was this more true than when former US president George W Bush was invited to sup a pint at Blair’s local pub.

Sedgefield’s Dun Cow Inn was the unusual location for a presidential visit in 2003.

Blair’s agent John Burton helped organise that and other visits, and says his time working for the PM still brings back fond memories.

“He is very much still liked here, we know how much he did for us, in schools and in the minimum wage.

“You can have all the political arguments you want but people here know those changes made a real difference in their life.

“Iraq is always going to be something that people either think we were right or wrong to go there, but now that has died down and most people think it is at least in a better state

“By and large Tony was just one of us, he could walk around the village and meet people to talk to, but he was never mobbed or treated as a celebrity.

“I remember seeing him just sat in the Labour club watching the football.

“And I think it was a bit of that when he brought George Bush here, yeah it was the president but done as just a nice casual thing.

“Of course, that has made the Dun Cow a piece of history, as big as when Carter went to Washington. People still come here now as tourists just to see it.

“He will always be ‘our son’ I guess, a part of Sedgefield history.”