Biographers fight for the definitive Mandelson
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Your support makes all the difference.Peter Mandelson, the man keeping his cards close to his chest over the Millennium Dome, is to be the subject of competing biographies. Barrie Clement, Labour Editor, says the Government's eminence grise faces an uncomfortable time in the spotlight.
Paul Routledge, who caused a flurry in the Downing Street dovecotes with his biography of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, is planning a similarly "revelatory" book about the minister without portfolio.
Mr Routledge, political correspondent of The Independent on Sunday, says he already has a working title: Mandy - the unauthorised biography. He believes it will be "in publishable form" by the end of the year, ironically at the same time as a biography written by colleague Donald Macintyre, chief political commentator on this newspaper.
Mr Routledge, 54, has been identified with "old Labour" and will enjoy no access to the great man. Mr Macintyre, 50, takes up a less archaeological political position and has been given reason to hope for least one audience with Mr Mandelson.
The minister without portfolio, who guards his privacy with the same zeal that he defends Tony Blair, is said to be unhappy about the attentions of both writers, but will be particularly incensed by the man from the Sunday paper. Mr Mandelson will be sensitive about his alleged role in encouraging and supporting Mr Blair as a candidate for the Labour Party leadership after the death of John Smith. In his biography of Gordon Brown, published last week, Mr Routledge makes it clear that the Chancellor felt betrayed when Mr Blair broke an alleged agreement that neither of them would run for the job before consulting the other.
Doubtless the literary contest will be characterised as a "battle of the books", but the two men have been close friends and colleagues for many years. At one stage Mr Routledge was labour editor of the Times and Mr Macintyre was his deputy and became his successor. Both refused to cross printworkers' picket lines at Rupert Murdoch's Wapping plant, and were dismissed.
"My book will not be published in opposition to Don's," said Mr Routledge, "but it will be in competition. I hope it will be as revelatory as my book on Gordon." The Independent's man preferred to keep his own counsel when asked about his rival.
Mr Routledge was last touched by the fickle finger of fame when he was presented to the Queen in bicentenary celebrations at the Times. Her Majesty ventured that the miners' strike was the sole responsibility of one man. In an apparent breach of protocol, Mr Routledge told a reporter that the Queen believed that Arthur Scargill was the main cause of the conflict - a story which led news bulletins all over the world.
It is possible that a third Mandelson biography will be published, penned by Francis Beckett, a freelance writer and journalist, who acknowledges the epithet "old Labour" and who is also unlikely to receive any co-operation from the subject.
Editor's letter, page 18
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