French's '£1.5m' book deal

Dawn French is set to earn more than £1.5million from writing her memoirs.

Leading publishers have becoming embroiled in a bidding war for the book, with eight companies reportedly offering at least £1.25 million just to be part of the negotiations.

The Sunday Times predicts the autobiography could set a record by selling for more than £1.6million – thought to be the amount Weidenfeld & Nicolson, paid for Julie Walters’ memoirs, due out next year.

French’s book is also expected to be published in 2008.

As well as her professional career, the title could also address her personal life. Her father Denys committed suicide when she was 19 and husband Lenny Henry was reported to have had an affair with a 26-year-old receptionist in 1999.

The size of her deal comes on the back of the runaway success of Peter Kay’s memoirs, The Sound Of Laughter, which sold more than 800,000 copies in the run-up to Christmas.

However other big-money sign-ups, including David Blunkett and Michael Barrymore, have produced nothing but expensive flops for the publishers.

Published: 1 Apr 2007