Not many sleeps to go until publication day for Liz Truss, the short-serving former prime minister, who has written a book titled Ten Years to Save The West. The book, out in mid-April, will “share lessons” from Truss’s decade in Government (and 49 days in 10 Downing Street). But how optimistic are the publishers? We notice that Truss’s initial advance from her UK publisher, Biteback, is a paltry £1,512.88. The rest will come in instalments. It’s a modest sum when compared with the advance her predecessor Boris Johnson received for his forthcoming memoir, as yet untitled.
Johnson reportedly bagged more than £500,000. Perhaps it’s calculated in line with time served in No 10? Her US publisher upped the ante with an initial advance of £6,161.40. Truss’s book might sell better in America than here. She has been touring the US to promote her ideas about limited government and free markets and spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference last month, where Donald Trump was the keynote speaker. Truss lamented a “deep state” effort to sink her government. Many Republicans lapped her up as a second Thatcher. UK readers might be more sceptical.
