HE has just recorded the most extraordinary election win of his career and has spoken of a desire for a third term as First Minister.

But Alex Salmond is already thinking about a project normally associated with politicians who have retired: a memoir.

The Sunday Herald can reveal that Salmond has had discussions about one with one of his own MSPs, newly-elected Joan McAlpine, writing his autobiography.

The idea took hold before the Holyrood election and is expected to gather pace as the First Minister works his way through the current five-year term.

The SNP leader has been in the political front-line for nearly a quarter of a century. While Salmond has spoken of his wish to lead his party into an independence referendum and beyond, he has an eye on how history will judge his political career.

McAlpine, a former journalist and now MSP for South of Scotland, has been granted access to Salmond in recent months with a view to a long-term book project.

A former deputy editor of The Herald and one-time assistant editor of the Sunday Times, a ghost-written memoir by her would focus heavily on Salmond’s time in power. It would also give a blow-by-blow account, through Salmond’s eyes, of the SNP’s rise.

McAlpine, 49, was an adviser to Salmond before and during the recent campaign, and accompanied him to a raft of events. She also recently interviewed Nationalist icon Sir Sean Connery for a tabloid newspaper.

An SNP source said McAlpine had been earmarked for the project, adding: “It’s embryonic and an idea for the future.” Although the project has been discussed, the timing of the Salmond publication has yet to be been determined.

Most politicians, including Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and Robin Cook, wait until they are out of ministerial office before penning an autobiography. Salmond’s critics believe that publishing the book while he is still in office would be a sign of hubris and even a propaganda exercise.

A gushing tome could be particularly sensitive if it was published in the run-up to a referendum on independence.

McAlpine will also be hoping that her previous experience of putting a charismatic politician’s life to paper has not jinxed her.

In the 1990s, the journalist co-authored A Time To Rage, an account of Tommy Sheridan’s anti-Poll Tax struggles.

Over a decade later, Sheridan was convicted of perjury following his 2006 defamation case.

McAlpine, who worked closely with Sheridan on the book, said the disgraced left-winger’s behaviour during the first court case made her “reassess my view of the man I believed to be indestructible”.

Her offering would be the second book on Salmond, following historian David Torrance’s biography last year.

Against The Odds chronicled Salmond’s life from the cradle to government, although it is believed the First Minister did not co-operate directly.

It is understood the First Minister kept his distance because he wanted to hoard the best material for his own book.

Graeme Morrice, the Labour MP for Livingston, said: “It is clear that Alex Salmond is beginning to believe his own hype. Instead of planning a vanity memoir, he should be using all his energy to help create jobs and improve public services.”

McAlpine did not return the Sunday Herald’s call.