BBC diplomatic correspondent James Landale will be taking on a major role at the forthcoming Raworths Harrogate Literature Festival 2019.
The broadcaster – who two years ago refused Theresa May’s offer to become Downing Street Director of Communications – will be interviewing another former Prime Minister, David Cameron, on the opening night of the four-day event.
Mr Cameron’s explosive autobiography, For the Record – which had been earmarked for publication after the UK left the EU – has been the most talked about book for many a year since its release last week, grabbing news headlines day after day.
Whilst The Guardian said that For the Record “reminds you why Cameron dominated British politics for so long. The prose is, like him, smooth and efficient”, Andrew Billen from The Times said: “I praise For the Record with genuine enthusiasm. It is tastily candid about his colleagues … but also about his own mistakes”.
Meanwhile publisher William Collins said David Cameron had given for the first time, “his perspective on the EU referendum and his views on the future of Britain’s place in the world in the light of Brexit”.
Like the former premier himself – who reportedly squirrelled himself away in a £25,000 shepherd’s hut to write his memoirs – Landale too attended Eton College.
Before joining the BBC in 2003 as its chief political correspondent and assisting political editor Nick Robinson from 2009 as deputy political editor, he spent ten years working as a journalist with The Times.