(Thumbnail Image: The Daily Mail)

BY NINA MOINI

TONY BLAIR: “I set out to write a book which would give the reader insight into the human as well as the political dimensions of life as a Prime Minister.” (TonyBlairOffice.org)

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s long-awaited memoir “The Journey” hits shelves in the UK Wednesday.  Amazon.com predicts Blair’s book could be the highest-selling political memoir ever. Blair has promised all proceeds from the book will go to help a charity for soldiers serving in the armed forces. It’s a promise one ITV News reporter finds “ironic” - in video posted on MSNBC.

“They’re still fighting and dying in the last mission he sent them on in Southern Afghanistan and the irony of soldiers who were injured in these conflicts benefiting form the sales of a book written by the man who sent them there is not lost on the charity which will spend the money.”

It’s not just money at the center of the criticism. The Telegraph interviews Blair critic Bob Crow of the Rail Maritime and Transport union, who accuses Blair of painting a much too rosy picture of his choices in office.

"This book is the predictable wallowing in self-pity and self-promotion of a Labour leader who squandered a golden opportunity to tackle the inequalities in our society.  Blair could have taken the side of millions of working people against the greed and corruption of the bankers and speculators.  Instead he sided with the rich and his legacy will always be of a war-monger whose instincts are to follow the trail of cash."

A blogger for The Guardian saves his criticism for Blair’s writing style rather than his leadership style.

“It is apparent from reading A Journey that Blair is telling the truth when he says he penned the book in longhand by himself. There are clunky phrases which bear the hallmarks of a law, rather than an English, graduate.”

A reporter for New Zealand’s 3news brings the focus back to content and says the memoir is an important piece of history.

“The publishers have gone to extraordinary lengths to try and keep this book under wraps, but from the extracts I’ve read tonight, it’s unlikely to be praised for its no holds barred candor. ... the important point to remember is this, they are still enormously significant historical documents likely to be studied long after the more gossipy memoirs like Peter Mandelson’s here have been forgotten.”

So what do you think? Will Tony Blair’s memoir outsell the rest?  Will you read it?