Truss' 'newsworthy' debut goes to Biteback

Biteback Publishing has acquired former prime minister Liz Truss’ debut, Ten Years to Save the West.

It is scheduled for April 2024 and will be published in the US by Regnery. 

James Stephens, publisher, bought UK and Commonwealth rights from the Javelin agency.

The blurb reads: “In Ten Years to Save the West, Truss – who as prime minister sought to champion an agenda of limited government and individual freedom – will argue that the rise of authoritarianism around the world and the adoption of fashionable ideas propagated by the global left give us barely a decade to preserve the economic and cultural freedom and institutions that the West holds so dear.” 

Truss, who is the shortest-serving PM in British history, said: “After more than 10 years as a government minister, I’ve seen up close the threats posed to global democracy. Across the free world, we face massive, unaccountable administrative states and complacent political and corporate establishments which are not only putting the brakes on economic growth, but also hampering our ability to stand up to authoritarian regimes like China and Russia. 

“I want to share the lessons from my experience in government and those international meetings where I was often the only conservative in the room and demonstrate that we have stark choices to make if we wish to avoid a managed decline of the Western architecture that has presided over generations of relative peace and prosperity.” 

Biteback added: “Peppered with newsworthy anecdotes from her time in public life – such as her memorable last meeting with Queen Elizabeth II, her challenges to Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping as foreign secretary, her encounters with the Trump administration as trade minister, and her dismay at the political class’ attempts to betray Brexit – this book will be a timely warning about the perils facing conservatism in the years ahead.” 

Truss will “warn that too many of her fellow conservatives have allowed themselves to be captured by the left-wing influences that set the agenda and frame the debate in so many institutions from the media to academia and the corporate world,” the publisher said. 

She will also call for a return to the alliances built by leaders such as Reagan, Thatcher and others in another era when Western values were under siege, Biteback said.  

“Only if the West recommits to building both strong societies and strong economies, unhampered by big government and regulation, Truss argues, can we guarantee voters a free and meaningful choice in their destiny,” the publisher added. 

The first biography of Truss was acquired by HarperCollins last September and published in November.