Liz Truss book: Six of the worst books by politicians, including Tony Blair, Nadine Dorries and Alex Salmond

Here is a list of what not to read this summer in the wake of Liz Truss’s new book, Ten Years To Save The West

Liz Truss has published her new book, Ten Years To Save The West, in which she blames every institution and person except herself for the disaster that was her tenure.

Despite lasting just 49 days as prime minister and having overseen the mini-budget that tanked the economy, Ms Truss is now offering advice on how to solve seemingly every political crisis.

With that in mind, here’s six of the worst books by politicians.

Former prime minister Liz Truss has written a book that has an interesting perception of reality.

A Journey: My Political Life, by Tony Blair

Whether it’s the historic 1997 election win, the feud and promises made to Gordon Brown, or perhaps the unmitigated disaster that was the Iraq war, there was quite a lot of ground for the former Labour prime minister to cover in his autobiography.

However, Sir Tony has not made the list for any of those, but instead for an excerpt that saw him nominated for a prestigious “Bad Sex” award.

The excerpt reads: "That night she cradled me in her arms and soothed me; told me what I needed to be told; strengthened me. On that night of 12 May 1994, I needed that love Cherie gave me, selfishly. I devoured it to give me strength. I was an animal following my instinct.”

The Dream Will Never Die: 100 days that Changed Scotland Forever, by Alex Salmond

Alex Salmond is many things, but universally loved is not one of them. Never was this clearer in the response to his book on the Yes campaign, which critics suggested was more about praising himself than actually saying anything insightful.

Here’s former Lib Dem leader, the late, great, Paddy Ashdown, with a takedown for the ages. He said: “I was reading Mr Salmond’s biography on the way up and it’s not very good, is it? It is in my view the longest exercise in literary masturbation since politics began."

The Plot, by Nadine Dorries

Former Cabinet minister Nadine Dorries is a very successful writer, with her first novel being a No.1 best-selling e-book, despite reviews comparing her sentences to "clippings from Wikipedia", or "the worst novel I've read in ten years".

The Plot, however, focused on what Ms Dorries believes was a coup against Boris Johnson, a book on such solid ground it was delayed for legal checks.

Here’s former Commons Clerk Eliot Wilson’s take from The Independent. He wrote: “As an act of homage to her hero, it is wholehearted and passionate. As political analysis, it is beyond useless.”

For The Record, by David Cameron

Another prime minister with lots to focus on, Lord Cameron appears to have decided he’d go into lots of detail about his mistakes, but not take any responsibility for them.

Writing in The Observer, Andrew Rawnsley said: “The book’s voice is not as humble as the interviews he has given to promote it. There are lengthy tracts of self-justification as he relitigates every controversy of his career before almost invariably coming to the conclusion ‘I was right’.”

Power and Pragmatism, by Sir Malcolm Rifkind

Sir Malcom Rifkind worked with MI6, ran GCHQ, was a minister for 18 years and in charge of troops during the Bosnian conflict. Oh, and he held secret negotiations over the Falklands with Argentina.All that said, here’s a less than complimentary take from The Herald, that said: “Sadly, the most interesting thing about Rifkind’s memoir is the index. Bill Clinton said that a lot of presidential biographies are self-serving and dull, but even a president of modest intellect would struggle to turn all this promising raw material into such a tedious narrative. Rifkind touches down all over the place, makes no effort to distinguish the profound from the trivial and seems incapable of adding colour to anything.”

Shakespeare: The Riddle of Genius, by Boris Johnson

Paid an £88,000 advance in 2015 from the prospective publisher of the work, the book was scheduled for publication in 2016. It obviously hasn’t been written. Much like finding benefits of Brexit, the wait continues.