“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,” begins Macbeth in his haunting final soliloquy. It also seems to be the sentiment adopted by Boris Johnson in regard to his long-promised tome on the works of William Shakespeare. By the time the book eventually appears, almost a decade is likely to have passed since the former prime minister was paid an £88,000 advance from the prospective publisher of the work, initially entitled Shakespeare: The Riddle of Genius. Since that handsome payment in 2015, Johnson has signed a new deal with a different publisher for an even larger advance – about £510,000 – for his political memoirs. It is expected that he will write those memoirs first.
The work on Shakespeare, which had initially been scheduled for publication in 2016 to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death, has become an intriguing detail in the rapidly expanding story of Johnson’s earnings. He has now earned almost £5m since he left office last September alone, on top of his MP’s salary of £84,144 a year. He has largely been earning the money from speeches, including £254,000 for an address in Singapore at a blockchain technology conference, in which he reassured cryptocurrency pioneers that the public were often wrongly sceptical about new technology – such as in the early days of train travel, when some alleged the rattling of the tracks risked causing sexual excitement. Since then he has even managed to enhance his cashflow by receiving an advance payment on speeches in the US yet to be delivered – an arrangement that recently netted him about £2.5m. The New York-based Harry Walker Agency, which paid the fee, would not comment on how often it had paid such an advance. It all means that Johnson, who once described a £250,000 second salary for writing a newspaper column as “chicken feed”, is fulfilling a pledge he made to friends to put “hay in the loft” after leaving No 10. The saga of his work on Shakespeare, however, remains unresolved. A spokesman did not comment on when the book would be written. Hodder & Stoughton, the publisher of the book, confirmed that Johnson was still under contract for it and that no publication date had been set. In fact, industry insiders said that the delay could end up working in Hodder & Stoughton’s favour. It worked with Johnson before he entered the cabinet, first publishing his book on Winston Churchill, The Churchill Factor, before retaining him to write the Shakespeare work. It was put on hold once he became foreign secretary under Theresa May. The publisher may prefer to work with Johnson during the less political phases of his rollercoaster career. Should he succeed in making a widely anticipated political comeback, it means that it could be many years yet before his thoughts on Shakespeare’s life and times are committed to print. It is generally accepted that political memoirs are written immediately after leaving office. The news comes amid fresh speculation about Johnson’s political plans, after the announcement by Nadine Dorries, one of his closest allies, that she will be stepping down from one of the safest Conservative seats. Moving to Dorries’s Mid Bedfordshire constituency would all but ensure Johnson would be in parliament after the next election. Johnson and his team continue to insist that he will contest the next election in his Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat, despite the fact that Labour looks capable of overturning his 7,210 majority. However, Johnson faces a series of political challenges before he is clear to have another tilt at the Tory leadership. His resignation honours list will probably lead to claims of cronyism, given that it contains the names of close allies and junior aides – with some close to the former prime minister claiming that it is much longer than similar lists produced by his predecessors. The greatest threat to his chances comes in the spring, when he will undergo a public grilling by the privileges committee, which is examining whether he misled MPs over what he knew about illegal Downing Street parties during lockdown.