Cherie Blair strikes £1m deal for autobiography

Cherie Blair has struck a deal to publish a "warts and all" autobiography in a deal reported to be worth £1m. Her memoirs will be published in October next year and will be awaited nervously by Gordon Brown and his allies. Although Tony Blair is now said to be on good terms with his successor, his wife barely concealed her fury at the way she believed he treated Mr Blair while he was Prime Minister.

At the Labour conference a year ago, Mrs Blair said "that's a lie" when Mr Brown told delegates he enjoyed his working partnership with her husband. Although she later denied the remark, it was widely believed to have reflected her opinion of the then Chancellor.

Mrs Blair's £1m advance from the publishers Little, Brown will be paid in three stages – an upfront payment of £300,000, then £300,000 when her book is handed over and the rest when it is published. The Blairs have huge outgoings, including a mortgage of about £19,300 a month on their £3.6m house near London's Marble Arch. Although Mr Blair could earn £6m from his own memoirs, he is in no hurry to write them.

Mrs Blair's book is being billed as a "warm, intimate and often very funny portrait of a family living in extraordinary circumstances". Her autobiography will chart the story of her life from a childhood in working-class Liverpool in the 1960s, to becoming a QC specialising in human rights law and then as wife of the Prime Minister. During 10 years in Downing Street, Mrs Blair continued her legal career, gave birth to her fourth child, Leo, but was a controversial figure. She famously said she was "not superwoman" when she apologised for using the convicted fraudster Peter Foster, who was the boyfriend of her lifestyle guru Carole Caplin, to help her buy two flats in Bristol.