So Gordon Brown is writing another book - where does he find the time? Last week he published a contribution to Wow! 366 about his childhood fascination with Captain Scott. Wartime Courage, a follow-up to last year's disquisition on courage which explores the courage of ordinary people during the second world war is due later this year. Now he's tackling being British, with contributors to include Ian Rankin and JK Rowling.
Prolific authorship aside, Brown is paying an awful lot of attention to the book trade. This week he was a "mystery guest" at the Edinburgh book festival, where he was interviewed by crime writer Ian Rankin.
He pulled a similar trick at April's London Book Fair, where much secrecy surrounded the identity of the guest to be interviewed by novelist Sebastian Faulks. That interview saw Brown reveal a penchant for Rankin, Raymond Chandler and JD Salinger, and tell gathered publishers that reading had been "a great passion of [his] life" and that "books are everything".
Of course books are important - as Brown himself said at the launch of the National Year of Reading, literacy is "one of the best anti-poverty, deprivation and crime policies we can think of". But faced with a credit crisis, and an impending leadership battle, they seem to be occupying a disproportionately large amount of the prime minister's time.
Perhaps he's preparing for life after No 10. Tony Blair earned a reported £5m for his autobiography after stepping down as PM - could Brown be looking to the future?
