Stranger than fiction

Can politicians replicate the richness of their experience in works of literature and intrigue?

Bill Clinton will join a long list of former politicians turned writers in June 2018 when his novel, called The President is Missing, is published. Christopher Pike / The National

Bill Clinton, the former president of the United States, is about to become a crime writer. Working with bestselling author James Patterson, Mr Clinton will join a long list of former politicians turned writers in June 2018 when his novel, The President is Missing, is published. The book has been described as a “behind-the-scenes global drama from the highest corridors of power”.

Mr Clinton is well positioned to write such a tale, but can fiction really replicate the life of an American president or any high-profile statesman? Given Mr Clinton’s interesting political history, we don’t think so. Yet this model of politicians turning into fiction writers is well rehearsed.

Take House of Cards, the hit American TV series based on a book by Michael Dobbs, a former chief of staff for the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party. While House of Cards epitomises political drama, the actual business of politics is probably wilder. Truth, as Mark Twain said, is stranger than fiction.