William Collins to publish ex-US ambassador Darroch's memoir

William Collins has landed the “riveting and candid” memoir of Kim Darroch, Britain’s ambassador to the US during Donald Trump’s White House reign.

Publishing director Arabella Pike acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Georgina Capel at Georgina Capel Associates. Collateral Damage: Britain, America and Europe in the Age of Trump will be published on 17th September. Clive Priddle, publisher at PublicAffairs, will release simultaneously in the US.

Darroch became Britain’s ambassador to the US in January 2016. He resigned in July 2019 in the wake of a leak of diplomatic documents that criticised the US leader.

The book’s synopsis reads: “This unvarnished, behind-the-scenes account will reveal the inside story behind Darroch’s resignation; describe the challenges of dealing with the Trump White House; and offer a diplomat’s perspective on Brexit, and how it looked to Britain’s closest ally.”

Pike said: “Kim Darroch is one of the UK’s most experienced and respected diplomats who had a ring-side seat to the Trump White House. Like Christopher Meyer’s DC Confidential, his riveting and candid memoir takes the reader deep behind the diplomatic scenes and into the rooms where it happened. We are so proud to be publishing this great book and expect it to make a splash when it is published.”

Darroch added: “There is a Chinese proverb: ‘May you live in interesting times’. My three and a half years in Washington were the most interesting and challenging of my career; and I am hugely grateful to my brilliant agent, Georgina Capel, and my editors, Arabella Pike and Clive Priddle, for encouraging me to write about what it was like to be British Ambassador in Washington during this extraordinary piece of history on both sides of the Atlantic.”

Priddle commented: “Darroch had the unenviable and Herculean task of explaining Britain and Brexit to the US, and Trump to the UK; for that you have to be a master of communication and analysis. I can’t think of a stranger passage in the history of the special relationship or a better author to explain to all of us what was going on.”