Clintons man to negotiate publishing deal for Blair

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has reportedly hired Robert Barnett, the man who secured a 12-million-dollar deal for ex-US President Bill Clintons autobiography My Life, to broker a deal for his memoirs.

London, Aug. 17 : Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has reportedly hired Robert Barnett, the man who secured a 12-million-dollar deal for ex-US President Bill Clinton's autobiography 'My Life', to broker a deal for his memoirs.

Sources close to Blair have revealed that the process is at a very early stage at the moment.

Industry insiders reckon that Blair's book may fetch a similar figure as Clinton's. Earlier, it was being speculated that Random House had struck an informal agreement with Blair for his memoirs last year. But the former Prime Minister's camp now insists that no deal has been made as yet.

Blair's book will carry an account of his life and time in Downing Street.

A Daily Mail report says that Blair's efforts to clinch a publishing deal may be a cause of concern for the current Prime Minister Gordon Brown, with whom he had a famously turbulent relationship.

News stories published earlier this week revealed that ex-Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott was in negotiations to sell his life story for an estimated 500,000 pounds.

ANI