We always thought Mark Latham’s innermost thoughts were already available on his unofficial website, They’re All Ars*lickers! Not so, according to the Sydney Morning Heraldthis morning.

“Mark
Latham has been hawking his personal diaries to the highest bidder and
is being offered about $100,000 for what publishers describe as an
explosive and insult-laden account of his years in politics,” writes
Tom Allard. “The elusive former Labor leader has been the subject of
five books and there are two more in the pipeline, yet this literary
overload has not dissuaded him from proffering the ultimate insider’s
account of his spectacular rise and fall. Mr Latham kept extensive
diaries throughout his political career and his literary agent, Mary
Cunnane, said she had a meeting with publishers in Sydney this month to
let them read a 25,000-word extract…”

Latham books are already weighing down the remainder tables. Craig McGregor’s Australian Son
was thin, to put it politely. I’m unaware of anyone who actually read
Barry Donovan’s effort. Michael Duffy must be breathing sighs of relief
that he hedged his bets and did a joint Latham/Abbott book.

Then there’s Bernard Langan’s upcoming work. We reported on that last week, after the preview in The Australian

by Steve Lewis. One line from that article interested us in particular:
“The book is to be released in July and Allen & Unwin is doing its
best to puff up what promises to be one of the most salacious political
reads of the past decade.” Salacious?

History isn’t going to be
kind to Mark Latham – but the McGregor and Donovan books, released
before his humiliation, gave him the benefit of the doubt. The volumes
that are yet to come will surely compensate by going in the opposite
direction. Latham has always been impetuous, so it’s no wonder he wants
to write some history of his own.

CRIKEY: According to a senior
publishing industry source, that manuscript is a “vituperative
outpouring of spleen” and they’ll be surprised if any decent publisher
bids for it. But then again, “there’ll always be somebody, won’t
there?” And if that isn’t enough to whet you appetite it’s hard to know
what would…