19 Mar 2009

Bush and former First Lady to pen books

8:33 pm on 19 March 2009

Former United States President George W Bush is to write a book about some of the decisions he made during his eight years in office.

Washington lawyer Robert Barnett said the book was tentatively called Decision Points and would be published by Crown Publishing Group in 2010.

He declined to disclose the financial terms of the deal.

Mr Barnett said the book would focus on decisions made by Mr Bush ranging from his relationship with family members to sending troops to Iraq and the response to Hurricane Katrina.

Mr Barnett - known for brokering publishing and media deals for Bill and Hillary Clinton, Mr Bush's successor, Barack Obama, and Mr Bush's former aide Karl Rove - also brokered a book deal for former first lady Laura Bush.

Her memoirs are also due to be published in 2010 by Scribner.

Laura Bush said in a statement she would "tell the stories of the extraordinary events and people I've met in my life, particularly during my years in the White House."

The publisher did not reveal terms of Laura Bush's deal, although publishing experts have said she could command a multimillion-dollar advance.

Mr Bush's former secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, has also agreed to a book deal with Crown Publishing Group.

The first book, a memoir of her time in the Bush administration, is tentatively scheduled to appear in the autumn of 2011.

It would be followed a year later by a book about her upbringing in Birmingham, Alabama, where she was born in 1954.

Dr Rice, an African-American, grew up amid segregation and during the civil rights movement in the United States.