TONY Blair's memoirs, signed for an estimated GBP5m almost three years ago, will be published in September, Random House announced on Thursday, promising a “frank, open and revealing” account of the former prime minister's life.

In a statement issued by the publisher, Blair said he had “really enjoyed” writing the book. “I have tried to write a book which describes the human as much as the political dimensions of life as prime minister,” he said. “Though necessarily retrospective, it is an attempt to inform and shape current and future thinking as much as an historical account of the past. Most of all I want readers to have as much pleasure reading it as I had writing it.” Blair will promote his memoirs with a national and international tour on its release in September, four months after the expected date of the next general election in May.

The autobiography, to be called Tony Blair The Journey, will be published by Random House Group imprint Hutchinson with an audiobook read by Blair himself, and an ebook edition, out at the same time, along with American and Canadian editions from Knopf and Knopf Canada. Blair refused to disclose the advance he received from Random House.

—The Guardian, London