Bio Hazard

In a riveting if slightly creepy aside in her column in this morning’s Times of London , Mary Ann Sieghart reports:

“After a lunch with the former Tory cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken, before his disgrace, he presented me with a signed copy of his (rather sympathetic) biography of Richard Nixon. Soon a rival biography of Nixon will be published by Conrad Black. What could Aitken and Black possibly have in common that explains their affinity with a wicked, dishonest but clever politician?”

The disgrace in question was a nasty corruption scandal involving allegations of kickbacks from Arab arms dealers followed by a perjury conviction in a related matter and seven months in jail. Aitken subsequently wrote two memoirs: one on the scandal and one on his prison days. No doubt Black’s read his book on Nixon. One wonders about the memoirs.