Alex Salmond to lift the lid on his career in an autobiography

Alex Salmond is to publish an explosive autobiography about his decades in politics next year.

Scotland’s longest-serving First Minister is putting the finishing touches to a warts-and-all account which will hit the bookshops in April next year.

It is understood Mr Salmond has signed a deal with a “major publisher” and has been tucking away stories and passages of text for the book for years.

The book will focus heavily on Mr Salmond’s time as First Minister and give a blow-by-blow account, through the SNP leader’s eyes, of his party’s rise and the inside track on the country’s historic referendum campaign.

Mr Salmond is no longer working with his former aide and journalist Joan McAlpine MSP who in 2011 was in talks to ghost write the book.

Industry sources claim the deal is likely to have attracted a six-figure advance.

His unofficial biographer and journalist David Torrance said: “It will be interesting to see how much he lets his guard down and we see the real Alex Salmond, he doesn’t really go into baring his soul that much and frankly a lot of the stories he thinks are interesting are less so to others.

“In terms of timing, he obviously has a lot more currency than a year ago and he is a proper national, UK political figure so the interest will be there, though I’m not sure quite how many copies will sell just because political books don’t tend to shift huge volumes.

“However, from what I have seen, when he turns his mind to it he can actually turn out some good prose.”

Mr Torrance, who is currently writing a biography of Nicola Sturgeon, wrote his biography of Mr Salmond entitled “Against The Odds” in 2010.

The First Minister did not co-operate with the book, which chronicled his life from the cradle to government, and was understood to be upset for his family as it included details of his paternal grandfather’s suicide.

One of the most intriguing aspects of the book will be how much Mr Salmond chooses to write about his own personal life. Mr Salmond recently gave an insight into the pressures his career has taken on his wife Moira throughout their 33-year-marriage.

In a newspaper interview conducted on the evening of the referendum, the SNP leader said: “You should never marry a politician. It’s Moira I’ve been concerned for. She always said she married an economist, not a politician.”

One Scottish publishing source said: “It’s one of the biggies. In terms of scheduling they’ll want it out for the peak Easter and summer holiday period next year.

“Serialisation rights alone for something like this are worth thousands. Hopefully, to the chagrin of his old political foes, he’ll be wonderfully indiscrete. The more he reveals, the bigger the impact.”