Ousted Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith was forced back into the limelight this morning as he went on the publicity trail to push his debut novel.
Barely five days since he was dramatically dumped mid-term as Tory boss, Mr Duncan Smith is now touting himself as a thriller writer, with his first effort, The Devil's Tune, available in bookshops at the end of the month.
It has already received damning reviews from two papers - The Times and the Telegraph - which were also critical of his capacity as party leader.
Speaking on the BBC this morning, Mr Duncan Smith likened the past two weeks to a "near death experience".
Mr Duncan Smith said he felt detached from the goings-on, as though he was not quite part of them. He said he felt like a character in a story.
"It is rather like almost being detached from yourself in one of those near-death experiences when somebody sits above himself and watches in a rather detached way thinking 'I am not quite sure what's going on here and whether actually I am part of this or not'," he said.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Start The Week programme, he said: "You reach the stage where you can actually begin to read the newspapers with complete detachment as though you are reading about somebody else.
"Half the stories I was reading I just couldn't see myself described in them. There was this sense that I don't quite understand what it's all about".
He said politicians should not criticise the media - before describing the press pack as being "in pursuit" of him, and "feeding itself" when there were no genuine stories to be had.
Mr Duncan Smith - still caretaker leader and still facing the results of the inquiry into his wife's salary for secretarial work - condemned the "intensity and ferocity" of the press.
Mr Duncan Smith said his decision to front out his opponents and challenge them to call a vote of confidence had been the right one.
He said the plotting could not have gone on, and either the party had to give him its backing or opt for a new leader.
He added: "When people say they are behind you in politics you have to be very careful. Because it is rather to be in front of you that is the key. Politics as we all know is a brutal business."
Mr Duncan Smith revealed that his novel has no sex scenes, despite lurid speculation ahead of publication. It was written, he said, in 1996/97 with a view to publication after the general election of that year.
However, Mr Duncan Smith's promotion to shadow defence secretary under William Hague lead to it being put on one side, before its publication now with some minor tweaks. The book goes on sale, priced £16.95, on November 28.
According to the official synopsis, the book concerns: "John Grande, a struggling London art dealer, is thrown what he thinks is a lifeline when he is given the opportunity of handling a collection of rare masters, housed in a villa above the cliffs of Positano in Italy. There, on the beach, he briefly encounters Laura Buckley, the glamorous producer of New York's most prestigious TV news programme. Neither could know that their lives were to become linked in a terrifying web of intrigue and deceit. Set on both sides of the Atlantic, Iain Duncan Smith's debut novel is an ingenious fast-paced thriller with an intriguing cast of characters reaching the highest level of office. All are being controlled and manipulated by a powerful, evil man seeking revenge for incidents reaching back to world war two, involving art thefts, possible Nazi collaboration and murder ... his actions prove to be explosive. "
It is not Mr Duncan Smith's first published work - last year he brought out a political pamphlet titled "There is such a thing as society", an attempt to reposition the party after Margaret Thatcher's famous insistence that there was no such thing.
Today Mr Duncan Smith hinted that he may produce more novels, but was more concerned with new thinking on "social justice" for the Conservative party.
