While the publication of Sasha Swire’s Diary of an MP’s Wife has resulted in much sniffy talk of social Siberia, Lady Swire may get to have the last laugh. To the bank. While MPs’ and ex-cabinet minister diaries and memoirs are regarded as the graveyard of publishing (advances of £10k-£20k are not unusual), Swire’s galloping indiscretions and serial betrayals were such that her literary agent Caroline Dawnay – sister-in-law of Rachel Johnson and no stranger to “packaging” memoirs – whipped up a bidding war, resulting in a whopping rumoured £250k advance. “That’s the same amount as Gareth Bale earns in a week,” says one Westminster insider. “She may be titled now, but she’s not from that Old Etonian Cameron clique. I’m sure she’s not too bothered by the hoopla.”
Swire swag
What do Sasha Swire and Gareth Bale have in common?
