Boris Johnson announces ‘unrestrained’ memoir Unleashed will be published in October

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Boris Johnson will lift the lid on his time in Downing Street publishing an “unrestrained” memoir called Unleashed.

The former prime minister announced the book will be published by William Collins on 10 October.

It promises to cover all the key moments from his time as London mayor to his role in the Brexit referendum and his stint in Downing Street between 2019 and 2022.

William Collins publishing director Arabella Pike said the memoir is “compulsively readable, stuffed to the brim with serious reflections on his time in office but written with his charismatic trademark wit, his vivid use of language and stories galore”.

Mr Johnson said: “I am honoured that HarperCollins is publishing my personal account of the huge realignment that took place in UK politics in the last 15 years – and what may lie ahead.

“So stand by for my thoughts on Britain’s future to explode over the publishing world like a much-shaken bottle of champagne.”

Mr Johnson’s political career began with a tilt at the safe Labour seat of Clwyd South, in north Wales, where he lost as the Conservative candidate in 1997.

He enjoyed a stint as the MP for Henley from 2001 to 2008 before becoming a political star as the mayor of London.

Beating the incumbent Ken Livingstone, his tenure in a city that was largely Labour-leaning was notable, and he occupied that office during the 2012 Olympics, considered a triumph for the host city.

Mr Johnson famously stole the show on the day of Britain’s first gold medal of the games, becoming stuck on a zipwire while holding two union flags and wearing a hard hat.

His path to the premiership was sealed by his backing of the Brexit campaign in 2016, which rocked the leadership of prime minister David Cameron, left Theresa May in deadlock, and created the conditions for Mr Johnson to take the top job.

His subsequent downfall as prime minister, just three years after winning a landslide 80-seat majority for the Conservatives in 2019, was short and devastating. He was forced out of office in September 2022 after overseeing repeated scandals including Partygate and his handling of groping allegations against former Tory whip Chris Pincher.

His memoir will come six months after his successor Liz Truss published her own book, Ten Years to Save the West.

Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister filled the memoir with jaw-dropping anecdotes from her time in Downing Street including the admission she thought “why me, why now?” after learning the Queen had died.