Andrew Morton (writer)

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Andrew Morton (born 1953) is a former British Fleet Street tabloid journalist. He is celebrated as a biographer of Diana, Princess of Wales.

1 Early years
2 Biography of Diana, Princess of Wales
3 Biography of Monica Lewinsky
4 Other publications
5 Books by Andrew Morton

[edit] Early years

Andrew David Morton was born in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. He attended grammar school, then studied history at the University of Sussex before moving into a career in journalism.

[edit] Biography of Diana, Princess of Wales

It has said to be that Andrew Morton was Princess Diana's most trusted confidance. Diana approached him about writing a book giving her side of her story and life when the tabloids started printing rumors about the demise of her marriage to Prince Charles. Morton's articles had been mostly sympathetic to Diana and, upon her request, he tape recorded their conversations. Along with the interviews he culled among her friends, they became the basis for the well-known book Diana: Her True Story. The biography was a number one best-seller on both sides of the Atlantic and shattered many myths about the British royals, though many found the book self-serving and suspected that Diana had authorized her friends to talk or had talked to Morton herself, given the wealth of personal information and even pictures the book included. Many critics trashed Morton's melodramatic writing style which was likened to that of cheap romance novels.

Apparently unchastened, or motivated by the outpouring of support for her side of the story that came with the book's publication, Diana later talked to Morton again when his publisher Michael O'Mara decided to release a sequel to the publishing blockbuster, titled Diana: Her New Life. This also topped the best-seller lists in the UK and US and was largely viewed, given the separation of the Princes of Wales, as the authorized version of Diana's story. Morton's conversations with Diana later became the basis for an American television movie, The Biographer.

[edit] Biography of Monica Lewinsky

Morton received public attention after Diana's death, when he revealed the extent of her collaborations with him. He achieved even greater prominence in the United States after the publication of Monica's Story, a book detailing Monica Lewinsky's version of the events and aftermath of the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.

The pairing of author and subject occurred only after a British tabloid printed a fabricated story, suggesting that Morton was planning on writing a book about the "portly pepperpot" (as the New York Post called Lewinsky). On hearing this, Lewinsky had her lawyers approach Morton, and the book proposal was bought by St. Martin's Press for $5 million. It topped best-seller lists on both sides of the Atlantic, despite dismal reviews taking Morton to task for his purple prose and sentimental approach.

[edit] Other publications

After Monica's Story, he investigated a mining disaster, which became his first non-royal journalistic account, Nine for Nine: The Pennsylvania Mine Rescue Miracle. It did not sell well and received tepid reviews. He wrote an authorized biography of Kenyan president Daniel Arap Moi, with slightly better reviews.

Then Morton moved on to "king and queen of pop culture," as he termed them, David Beckham and his wife Victoria. Posh and Becks, became a No. 1 best-seller in the United Kingdom, but received little attention in the United States.

Soon after, Morton announced that he would be taking on the "queen of pop", Madonna. She asked all her friends not to cooperate, but Morton assured the press that he would get them to talk anyway. Despite a seven figure advance by St. Martin's Press and a 500,000-copy first printing, Madonna failed to make waves in America, where it spent only two weeks on the New York Times best-seller list (peaking at No. 8). By contrast, J. Randy Taraborrelli's Madonna: An Intimate Biography, released at the same time, became a massive best-seller. Morton subsequently wrote another Diana book entitled In Pursuit of Love, with information that he had left unaddressed. The book made the New York Times best-seller list.

Morton recently announced he will be writing an unauthorized biography of Tom Cruise. Cruise has refused to comment on the biography, which will allegedly detail his love life, the rumors about his sexuality and his involvement with the Church of Scientology.[1]