I see that Tony Blair has appointed the hotshot Washington lawyer, Bob Barnett, to get a deal for his memoirs. There is little doubt that this will be an important and big-selling book and that the forthcoming auction will be interesting, to say the least.

There are many variables and imponderables in calculating what advance to offer. When will the book be published? How good will it be? How revealing or otherwise? How much would a newspaper pay for serialization? What might be the scope and size of translation rights? How well might the book sell in the UK and USA? How much would the publisher have to set aside for security and management diversion?

As an aid to all the publishers who might be bidding can I invite you to suggest:

1. How much should be the top offer for world rights?

2. How much will be the top offer for world rights?

3. Which publisher will triumph?

Over to you.

And here is a link to an amazing tribute to Bill Deedes.