Blair's press chief to lift the lid on Downing Street in new book

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2007

LONDON (AFP) — An eagerly-anticipated book by Alastair Campbell, former British prime minister Tony Blair's press chief, was set to go on sale Monday.

The release of the book comes a day after Random House, Campbell's publishers, put extracts of "The Blair Years" on their website, revealing among other things that Blair thought of quitting before the Iraq war.

The book, peppered with expletives and written in a typically robust style, is the first insider chronicle of the Blair years.

Campbell stepped down in 2003 with political flak over the Iraq war flying, although he insisted the move was unrelated to that and he remained close to Blair subsequently.

Blair's successor Gordon Brown has said that he will not read the book, despite the fact that...