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.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article