Author is said to specialise in books about ‘men with something to hide’
With Boris Johnson facing mounting calls to resign following this week’s supreme court ruling, and a brewing conflict of interest scandal, he is likely hoping nothing else will add to his list of woes.
But the prime minister has another potential pitfall on the horizon as, the Guardian has learned, the investigative author Tom Bower is writing a biography of him.
The award-winning journalist, whose wife, Veronica Wadley, served as a senior adviser to Johnson during his time as mayor of London, confirmed the book will be ready to hit the shelves next year.
Bower, who has been responsible for a series of damning biographies about high-profile figures over the years, has a reputation for unearthing damaging revelations about his subjects. He is said to specialise in books about “men with something to hide”.
News of the impending book will come as an unwelcome headache for the prime minister – who has a notoriously colourful private life – after a series of damaging revelations in recent months, including his late-night row with girlfriend Carrie Symonds.
This week, the prime minister stonewalled questions about a Sunday Times investigation that revealed he had a close friendship with US model-turned-entrepreneur Jennifer Arcuri, whose business received public funds while he was mayor. It comes as Johnson was hit by the supreme court’s ruling on Tuesday that his move to suspend parliament was illegal.
Bower has penned a series of biographies about Labour political figures including Jeremy Corbyn, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown but it is the first time he will dig into the life of a Conservative leader.
The columnist Peter Oborne accused Bower of systematically distorting the truth in his biography of the Labour leader, Dangerous Hero: Corbyn’s Ruthless Plot for Power, which was released earlier this year. In a scathing review, he wrote: “[The book] systematically omits relevant facts in order to portray Corbyn as a ruthless Marxist and antisemite hellbent on destroying western liberal values.”
By comparison, the Times’ review labelled it a “forensically detailed portrait” of Corbyn. Despite the praise, the reviewer concluded: “Yet Bower never really unpicks precisely why so many people, despite everything, continue to support such a joyless, limited and dogmatic man.”
Other biographies authored by Bower include books on Prince Charles, the Formula One tycoon Bernie Ecclestone, the billionaire Richard Branson, TV judge Simon Cowell and the businessman Mohamed Al Fayed. In 2003, Bower won the prestigious William Hill sports book of the year prize for Broken Dreams: Vanity, Greed and the Souring of British Football, his investigation into corruption in the game.
Bower’s latest book is published by Ebury, part of Penguin Books. It will be the third major biography of Johnson, following Sonia Purnell’s Just Boris: A Tale of Blond Ambition, published in 2011, and Andrew Gimson’s 2006 Boris: The Rise of Boris Johnson.
Wadley, a former editor of the Evening Standard who has been married to Bower for more than 30 years, was a senior adviser to Johnson from 2012 to 2016.
Drummond Moir, the group deputy publisher at Ebury, said: “WH Allen are proud to confirm they have signed up Britain’s leading investigative biographer to write a new biography of Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. Written with Bower’s trademark access, insight and candour, the book will be published in 2020.”