Cherie sells £1m life story

The "warts and all" book threatens to reveal in full what she thinks about Gordon Brown and will also chart her life from a working class childhood in Liverpool to become a leading barrister and a decade living at No10.

One Labour official reacted in mock horror this afternoon. "Two words strike dread into me, 'Cherie' and 'book'," he said. Mrs Blair never hid her anger at what she saw as disloyalty by Mr Brown towards her husband.

She caused a massive row at last year's Labour conference by blurting out "that's a lie" during Mr Brown's big speech when he said how much he had enjoyed working with her husband. Tony Blair brought the house down by joking that at least he did not have to worry about his wife running off with "the bloke next door".

Rumours around Whitehall said she fiercely battled to dissuade Mr Blair from quitting office earlier because she so resented what she saw as Mr Brown's efforts to force him out.

The estimated £1 million advance for the book will be paid in three parts - £300,000 up-front, followed by £300,000 when the manuscript is delivered and the remainder on publication.

The first £300,000 will come as a much-needed relief to the Blairs who have massive outgoings. In September 2004 they paid £3.6 million for a townhouse in Connaught Square, to which they have added the £800,000 mews house which backs on to it. Their mortgage for both properties is around £19,300 a month and they have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds renovating them.

In addition, they also own two Bristol flats which Mrs Blair controversially bought with the advice of conman Peter Foster. These are rented out to subsidise the mortgage payments.

Her life story is due out in October next year, coinciding with the annual party conference.

A spokeswoman for publishers Little Brown would not be drawn on how much Mrs Blair might reveal about divisions between the Blairs and Mr Brown and his supporters.

"I cannot really say because she is writing the book at this moment," she said. "But it will be a full story of her life, including her life at No 10."

The spokeswoman said Mrs Blair was "writing the book by herself" and would not rely on the services of a ghost writer or co-author. "Obviously she will get editorial help, the same as any other author but she is writing it herself," she said.

Despite working as a QC and writing a previous book on PM's spouses under her maiden name of Cherie Booth, she has decided to publish the new work as Cherie Blair - a decision that will fuel accusations she is cashing in on the fame of being the former prime minister's wife.

Neill Denny, editor-in-chief of The Bookseller magazie said: "There will be a big audience for the book. She is a bit of a Marmite figure - you either love her or hate her, but she has a lot of supporters. A lot of London people don't care for her but she definitely has an appeal.

"There's the family angle, having a baby in Downing Street, bringing up the children and the rows over their education. There were the arguments over the purchase of the [Bristol] flats and the whole Carole Caplin stuff.

"And it will be interesting to see how much she goes into the Blair-Brown relationship."

The book is due for publication in October next year which could have political consequences, he added. "Gordon Brown doesn't know what is going to be in this book.

"It could be quite dangerous to Brown. So could it influence when he has the election?"