Politician 'signs book deal' to write Shakespeare biography

London Mayor and recently elected MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip Boris Johnson has signed a £500,000 (100 million Naira) book deal to write a biography about Shakespeare.

Johnson, whose best-selling biography of Churchill was lauded by critics last year, will write the book in time for a 2016 release to mark the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death.

The lucrative £500,000 book deal from publishing house Hodder is worth seven times his £74,000 MP’s salary, according to The Sunday Times.

Johnson’s decision to write the biography while serving as an MP and Mayor of London has led to doubts about his commitment to his political work. The book deal comes after criticism that Johnson has not taken his return to parliament seriously.

When asked by The Independent whether he was happy with his new role as an MP, he replied: “Well, it’s not exactly a job, is it?” and later described his position as a “zero-hours contract”.

The biography will be the 12th book the politician has written, following the success of The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History, which sold more than 160,000 hard back copies since its release in October last year.

Johnson’s Shakespeare biography will compete in a crowded market place to mark the 400th anniversary of the Bard's death, rivalling books by scholars including James Shapiro, Stanley Wells and Paul Edmondson, as well as a novelised version of The Winter’s Tale from Jeanette Winterson.