Biographer Tom Bower is known for his tell-all books in which he makes bombshell claims about his subjects.
The investigative journalist, who has previously written about Prince Charles, Simon Cowell, Tony Blair, Jeremy Corbyn and Richard Branson, is now said to have Meghan Markle in his sights having reportedly signed a six-figure advance to pen a book about the Duchess.
Bowers, 74, will embark on a year of research, speaking to friends, enemies and associates of Prince Harry and his wife Meghan to write his new biography.
Just this week, a source told The Sun : "This is the book Meghan will be dreading.
"Tom doesn't pull his punches, and is terrifyingly thorough in his research. No stone will be left unturned.
"Tom has previously worked with some of his subjects, and even spent time trailing them, but it has been made perfectly clear to him that this will not be an option with Meghan."
In 2003 Tom won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year for Broken Dreams, an investigation into corruption in English football.
He now lives in London and is married to the former editor of the Evening Standard, Veronica Wadley.
Here we look at five times the relentless writer made bombshell claims about the subjects of his feared books.
Prince Charles
In his book 'Rebel Prince', Tom Bower depicted Prince Charles as vain, cold and out of touch.
The biography tells the story of Charles's life after Diana's death and his campaign to rehabilitate and marry Camilla.
In the book, the author says His Royal Highness travels with his own toilet seat and changes clothes up to five times a day.
Bower also claims that Prince Charles employed retired servicemen to hand-pick slugs from the plants at night in his organic garden at Highgrove.
The biography detailed claims of an extraordinary life of extravagance and wealth, describing the future king as petulant, spoiled, self-indulgent and self-pitying.
But as The Oldie pointed out at the time, many of these stories are considered to be simply not true - with the slugs tale having been denied on good authority.
While a Guardian review in 2018 remarked that the "highly negative" biography was "only a partial account of his [Charles'] life and its contexts".
Simon Cowell
Tom Bower's book 'Sweet Revenge: The Intimate Life of Simon Cowell' revealed that the TV star had a fling with Dannii Minogue and was obsessed with Cheryl Cole.
The author said Simon fell for Cheryl during her frequent visits to his dressing room in their three years together as judges on X Factor.
Bower also claimed to reveal details about Cowell's alleged relationship with fellow X Factor judge Dannii Minogue.
Reacting to the news that someone was writing his biography, Cowell said: "When I first got the call saying someone was writing a book about me I said 'good, who is it?' They said 'Tom Bower'. Not good'."
After the unofficial biography came out, the music mogul apologised "to anybody I embarrassed".
He said: "I spent last week under a pillow in my bedroom. Newspapers were banned."
Jeremy Corbyn
Tom Bower claimed to reveal personal details about Jeremy Corbyn's personal and professional life in the book 'A Dangerous Hero: Corbyn’s Ruthless Plot for Power'.
After 18 months of research, and after interviewing the former Labour leader's wives, Bower depicted married life with Corbyn as "arid" and described him as "joyless".
In the book, Bower claimed Corbyn allegedly neglected the mum of his three sons.
The author wrote that while his wife Claudia was about to give birth to their first child at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, Corbyn made a phone call to his constituency agent Keith Veness.
In the call, he apparently said: "I’m really worried. We haven’t put out that leaflet about Northern Ireland."
Veness is said to have told him: "Haven’t you got something more serious to worry about?"
"What’s that?" Corbyn asked.
Veness replied: "You’re about to be a father. I’ve never heard of anyone who lost an election because they didn’t get a leaflet out."
As the Mirror reported at the time, claims in the book included that Mr Corbyn ran up debts of £30,000 in the 1990s after paying a community centre's rent and salaries out of his own pocket, infuriating his second wife who went on to leave him.
His first wife Jane Chapman claimed he didn't read a single book in their four years of marriage, accusing him of a "lack of emotional awareness" and a joyless approach to life.
On the Andrew Marr Show around the time of the book's serialisation in the Daily Mail, the book's claims were described as “a complete hatchet job” and branded “nonsense” by sources close to the Labour leader.
After initially declining to dignify it with a response, Labour issued a heavy attack on the coverage in 2017.
A party spokesman called it a "poorly researched and tawdry hatchet job, packed with obvious falsehoods and laughable claims - from events that never took place to invented conversations and elementary errors of fact."
In a review published by The Guardian, Gaby Hinsliff said the author was trying to convince readers that the former Labour leader was "unfit for office".
The journalist wrote: "The book opens with a vignette that in some ways illustrates what Bower is up against in trying, as he evidently is, to convince readers that the Labour leader is unfit for office."
Tony Blair
In the biography 'Broken Vows: Tony Blair, The Tragedy of Power', Tom Bower claimed that when Tony Blair became Prime Minister he told a senior RAF officer he did not know much about military affairs.
He apparently said: "I know we have an Army, Navy and Air Force, but I don’t know any more."
Bower said the former Prime Minister relied on General Charles Guthrie, the Chief of the Defence Staff until 2001, to educate him.
The one-sided book claimed to reveal that Blair wanted to welcome tens of thousands of migrants into the UK to "see the benefit of a multicultural society" and enjoyed a close relationship with media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's then wife, Wendi Deng.
However, the author has been criticised for picking and choosing details in an "inaccurate hatchet job" about the former Prime Minister.
In a review for the Independent in 2016, Andy McSmith wrote: "Reading this dreary book is like being trapped in a corner by somebody intent on telling you all that is wrong with the world. It is not history, it is a philippic.
"It does not assess Tony Blair: it sets out to shred whatever is left of his reputation."
McSmith concluded that Bower, who has written some "very good books", had this time written a "very bad one".
The reviewer added at the time: "He has not – as the blurb on the dust jacket claims – 'uncovered the full story of Blair's decade in power', but if you are furious that the Labour government was ever permitted to interrupt Conservative rule, here is a book to reinforce your prejudices."
Richard Branson
Tom Bower wrote two biographies about Richard Branson.
The first book, initially published in 2000, was republished in 2008 with some extras including more alleged business failures.
The book was described by Branson as a "foul, foul piece of work".
Business journalist Chris Blackhurst, writing in the Independent in 2014, remarked how Bower's second book, 'Branson: Behind the Mask', sought to represent the Virgin founder as "akin to a Blofeld character, stroking his cat while plotting his next conquering, profile-raising move."
Bower's biography attempted to paint a picture of Branson as a single-minded profiteer whose only aim was to enhance his family's fortunes.
However, Blackhurst countered Bower's claims in his review of the biography, remarking that this "of course, is not how we see him. Nor, having met Branson many times, is it how he comes across."
