In his memoir 'A Journey' Mr Blair describes being at a friend's house where the two had met to discuss who would take over as Labour leader following the sudden death of John Smith in 1994. 
 
 The old house was being renovated, Mr Blair explains. During the meeting Nick Ryden, the owner of the house, left the leadership contenders alone to talk. 
 
 "After an hour or so Gordon got up to go to the loo. I waited downstairs," Mr Blair recalls. 
 
 "Five minutes passed. Then ten. Then fifteen. I was getting a bit alarmed. Suddenly the phone went. As it wasn't my house, I left it. 
 
 "The answerphone clicked in, and Nick's voice asked the caller to leave a message. Suddenly out of the machine boomed another voice: 'Tony, it's Gordon here.' 
 
 "Wow, I was really freaked out. What the hell was going on? 'I am upstairs in the lavatory,' he went on, 'and I can't get out.' 
 
 Mr Blair explains that during the building work the lavatory door had been replaced but no handle on the inside had been fixed yet. 
 
 "Gordon had spent a quarter of an hour on his mobile trying to track down Nick's number," Mr Blair continues. 
 
 "I went up to the loo. 'Withdraw from the contest or I'm leaving you in there, I said." 
 
 The incident is a lighter moment in the tempestuous relationship between the pair. 
 
 In the book Mr Blair describes Mr Brown as "maddening", reopening a rift which Labour supporters fear is overshadowing the contest for a new leader of the party. 
 
 MPs have warned that Labour was in danger of plunging into civil war due to the ferocity of Mr Blair's attack on Mr Brown. 
 
 The row is threatening to intensify the rift between the two front-runners for the leadership, the brothers David and Ed Miliband, who are seen to represent the Blairite and Brownite wings of the party. 
 
 Buy 'A Journey' by Tony Blair from Amazon UK ||||| Kirsty Wigglesworth / AP Copies of A Journey, the memoirs of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, are on display at a bookstore in London on Sept. 1, 2010 
 
 History, it seems, is no longer written by the victors but by those who get their memoirs onto the bookshelves first. And Britain's most electorally successful Labour leader, former Prime Minister Tony Blair, has seized his moment. 
 
 It's been just three years since Blair was forced from office early by his own party, and only four months since his successor and tormentor, Gordon Brown, ended Labour's 13 years in power by losing the May 2010 general election. But already, Blair has produced A Journey: My Political Life, his revealing and intimate account of Labour's reign, backing it with his first major interview since he left 10 Downing Street. (See pictures of Tony Blair.) 
 
 So we read that Blair believes Labour lost in May because under Brown  of whom Blair says he always knew would be a "disastrous" Prime Minister  the government turned away from the Blairite New Labour agenda of public-services and welfare reform. 
 
 Blair confirms what everyone knew but was always dismissed by his spin doctors: his relationship with Brown, once his chief finance minister, had for years been broken virtually beyond repair, and Blair held back from sacking Brown only out of fear that the Scot would be more powerful, dangerous and left wing outside the Cabinet. Blair even claims credit for what was believed to have been Brown's most radical policy: giving independence to Britain's central bank as a first act after Labour's 1997 landslide election victory. (See pictures of Tony Blair in Egypt.) 
 
 And with impeccable timing, Blair steps into the current election campaign for a new Labour leader  which was launched on Wednesday, the day of the book's publication  by insisting that the party should stick with the centrist, New Labour theme of change. "The danger for Labour now is that we drift off, or even move decisively off, to the left," Blair writes. "If we do, we will lose even bigger next time. We have to buck the historical trend and face up to the reasons for defeat squarely and honestly." 
 
 The book has met with a mixed response. Some commentators have described it as a "fascinating, well-written and revealing" read from the longest-serving Labour Premier ever. Others dismiss it as a "self-serving, divisive and one-sided" account of his time in power and a blatant attempt to justify his actions, like the war on Iraq, after the event. (See a TIME Q&A; with Tony Blair.) 
 
 Perhaps most significantly, all five contenders in the election to be the new Labour leader  brothers and former ministers Ed and David Miliband, Ed Balls, Andy Burnham and left winger Diane Abbott  have expressed reservations, or downright anger, about the book and its timing, with all of them suggesting that it is time to move on from the Blair era. "I am my own person," said former Foreign Secretary David Miliband, widely accepted as Blair's favored candidate during a TV leadership debate on the evening of the book's publication. "I look forward to the day when Tony says he is a Milibandite rather than people asking me whether I am a Blairite." And former minister Burnham said, "It really saddens me that battles of the past are being brought to bear on this leadership election." 
 
 Unsurprisingly, it is the details of the relationship between Blair and Brown, the two most powerful men in the last government, that has produced the most headlines. In A Journey Blair describes Brown variously as "maddening," "strange" and with "zero emotional intelligence," saying he became near impossible to work with. "Was [Gordon] difficult, at times maddening? Yes," Blair writes. "But he was also strong, capable and brilliant, and those were qualities for which I never lost respect." (Watch TIME's video "Tony Blair's New Calling.") 
 
 Blaire may not have lost respect for those qualities, but he clearly lost his patience with the man who was constantly pressing him to stand aside, revealing in one sharply funny passage that he even stopped taking calls from him: "Poor Jon [an adviser] would come in and say: 'The chancellor really wants to speak to you.' I would say: 'I am really busy, Jon.' And he would say: 'He is really demanding it.' Then I would say: 'I'll call him soon.' And Jon would say: 'Do you really mean that, prime minister?' And I would say: 'No, Jon.' " 
 
 To the dismay of his critics, nowhere in A Journey does Blair express regret over his decision to go to war in Iraq, which has done more to define his premiership and legacy than any other. "I am unable to satisfy the desire even of some of my supporters, who would like me to say: it was a mistake but one made in good faith," he writes. 
 
 Nor is there any recanting of his controversial  among many Labour supporters  backing for a Republican U.S. President, George W. Bush, on whom Blair heaps lavish praise. "I was asked recently which of the political leaders I had met had the most integrity. I listed George near the top," he says in his book. " Some people were aghast, thinking I was joking. He had genuine integrity and as much political courage as any leader I ever met. He was, in a bizarre sense, a true idealist." (See the top 10 across-the-pond duos.) 
 
 Brown has refused to comment on the book, but close friends say he is deeply unhappy at the way he has been portrayed, and they have branded the book "unfair and one-sided." 
 
 Whatever Blair intended by publishing his memoirs before the wounds of Labour's loss have had time to heal, his attempt to write the history of the longest Labour administration ever seems unlikely to go unchallenged. Brown has signaled that he has no intention of producing his own version of these fascinating and extraordinary events. But many now wonder if he will continue to resist the desire to write Labour's history his way. 
 
 See pictures of how Presidents age in office. ||||| Mr Blair insisted that he was not an ''excessively excessive'' drinker and always believed he was ''in control'' of his alcohol intake. 
 
 But in his memoir, A Journey, he confessed that he was never sure whether his drinking was good or bad for him, adding: ''You have to be honest: it's a drug, there's no getting away from it.'' 
 
 Mr Blair wrote: ''By the standards of days gone by I was not even remotely a toper, and I couldn't do lunchtime drinking except on Christmas Day, but if you took the thing everyone always lies about - units per week - I was definitely at the outer limit. 
 
 ''Stiff whisky or G&T before dinner, couple of glasses of wine or even half a bottle with it. So not excessively excessive. I had a limit. But I was aware that it had become a prop.'' 
 
 Mr Blair said he could ''never work out'' whether alcohol was good for him because it helped him relax, or bad because he could have been working instead of relaxing. 
 
 He came to the conclusion that the benefits of relaxation outweighed the cost to his work. 
 
 ''I thought that escaping the pressure and relaxing was a vital part of keeping the job in proportion, a function rather like my holidays,'' he wrote. 
 
 But he added: ''I was never sure. I believed I was in control of the alcohol. However, you have to be honest: it's a drug, there's no getting away from it.'' 
 
 Buy 'A Journey' by Tony Blair from Amazon UK ||||| In one of the most intriguing parts of his memoir, he discusses the impulses that might prompt politicians to cheat on their wives, as he describes the way in which his leadership was shaken by his colleagues having affairs, including John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, and Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary. 
 
 In highly personal extracts that have surprised Westminster insiders, he explores the “free-bird” impulse to have affairs “to spring you from that prison of self-control”. 
 
 “Then there is the moment of encounter, so exciting, so naughty, so lacking in self-control,” Mr Blair writes. “Suddenly you are transported out of your world of intrigue and issues and endless machinations and the serious piled on the serious, and just put on a remote desert island of pleasure, out of it all, released, carefree. 
 
 “You become a different person, if only for an instant, until returned back to reality,” he explains. 
 
 The former Prime Minister also admits that many women found politicians highly desirable. “It’s a strange thing, politics and sex,” Mr Blair points out. “People have often said to me that power is a kind of aphrodisiac, and so women – politics still being male-dominated – would come on to politicians in a way they would never dream of with anyone else.” 
 
 The comments are made as Mr Blair discusses the revelation that Mr Prescott had an affair with Tracey Temple, his diary secretary. 
 
 He seeks to justify the behaviour, writing: “I totally understood the desire to escape. And it’s nothing really to do with how happy or otherwise your marriage is. It’s an explosion of irresponsibility in an otherwise responsible life.” Although he decided not to sack Mr Prescott, he says retrospectively that it would have been better to do so. 
 
 Mr Blair says he was relatively relaxed about the news that Mr Cook had been having an affair with his assistant, Gaynor Regan. He says he was more concerned about how Alastair Campbell tried to control the media’s handling of the story. Mr Blair believed the public was also tolerant of sexual misdemeanours. “The issue is not the fornication, but the complication,” he said. 
 
 Although Cherie Blair is mentioned relatively infrequently in the memoir, Mr Blair provides some intimate details about their relationship, particularly following the death of the Labour leader John Smith in 1994: “On that night of 12 May, 1994, I needed that love Cherie gave me, selfishly. I devoured it to give me strength, I was an animal following my instinct.” 
 
 Mr Blair also describes being lovestruck during his first serious relationship, with Amanda Mackenzie Stuart, during his last year at school. 
 
 “You know the first person you ever fall in love with; you know the incredible outpouring of desire, the overwhelming sense of something unique, inexpressible, inexplicable and even incomprehensible, but so thrilling, uplifting, your heart pumping and soaring?” 
 
 He provides details of the long-term friendship with his “sexy and exuberant” aide Anji Hunter, of whom Mrs Blair was reported to be jealous. “Anji was my best friend. We had known each other since the age of 16 when I had tried climbing into her sleeping bag at a party in the north of Scotland (without success!),” Mr Blair says. 
 
 Buy 'A Journey' by Tony Blair from the Telegraph Books ||||| Diana, Princess of Wales was down to earth, charming and intelligent, but also stubborn and prone to be over-emotional, says Mr Blair. 
 
 He recalls meeting the Princess at Chequers in July 1997, the month before she died, saying he felt an uneasiness about her relationship with Dodi Fayed but could not put his finger on why. He says she did not appreciate him broaching the subject with her. 
 
 “We were both, in our own way, manipulators” — good at grasping the feelings of others and instinctively playing on them. 
 
 Giving his first account of what happened on the night she died, Mr Blair says he was woken at 2am on Aug 31, 1997 by a police officer at the end of his bed, who told him that Diana had been badly injured. 
 
 He knew from the beginning that her chances of survival were poor, and was told of her death at 4am. Mr Blair says that, without wishing to sound callous, he wanted to “manage” the situation and shape the public grief that would follow. 
 
 It was difficult because there were no conventions for the death of a person such as the Princess of Wales. He prepared his now famous “People’s Princess” speech on the back of an envelope with the help of Alastair Campbell 
 
 He felt that the royal family’s lack of response to the Princess’s death was dangerous for them in the face of a massive outpouring of public grief and felt a duty to protect the monarchy from itself. 
 
 He says he did his best, even though some members of the Establishment did not like who he was and what he represented. Mr Blair felt that he could not be direct with the Queen about the gravity of the situation so he spoke to the Prince of Wales, who agreed with him and said he would tell the Queen that Mr Blair thought that she should make a public statement. She agreed. 
 
 After the funeral, Mr Blair spent the weekend at Balmoral, where he felt a little uncomfortable, and could not have got through it with out the stiff drink that was served up before dinner. 
 
 He spent a lot of time alone with the Queen and says it was hard for her to accept the public perception that he was telling her what to do. He did not know the Queen well then and they were both ill at ease with one another. “I spoke, with passion, of the need to accept life’s lessons. I worried she found me presumptuous — she was a little haughty.” 
 
 But at the end of the weekend the Queen accepted that she had learned some lessons. 
 
 A year later he spent a weekend at Balmoral with Cherie, who wanted to bring the children, but he told her this was out of the question. They had a barbecue where the Royal family served the food and did the dishes. “You think I’m joking? You’re sitting in front of your empty plate and suddenly, the Queen clears it away for you.” Mr Blair says he spoke to Prince William who was still angry about his mother’s death. He believes he felt burdened by the “prison of hereditary tradition”. 
 
 Buy 'Journey' by Tony Blair from the Telegraph Books
– Tony Blair’s memoir, A Journey, has just hit stores, and it’s loaded with juicy revelations that have Britain talking. Among them: Blair says he used alcohol as “a prop,” with his daily intake “definitely at the outer limit” of what was acceptable. “By the standards of days gone by I was not even remotely a topper,” he protests, adding that his intake was “not excessively excessive. I had a limit.” Much of the headlines have been dominated by his always-rumored but until now denied feud with Gordon Brown. Blair says he knew Brown would be a “disastrous” prime minister, and blames him for the party’s recent losses He also reveals that when they were vying to lead the party in 1994, Brown accidentally locked himself in the bathroom. “Withdraw from the contest or I'm leaving you in there,” Blair told him. Of his relationship with Princess Diana, he writes: “We were both, in our own way, manipulators—good at grasping the feelings of others and instinctively playing on them.” He also discusses the extramarital affairs of his colleagues. Such trysts, he writes, “spring you from that prison of self-control. … Suddenly you are transported out of your world of intrigue and issues and endless machinations and just put on a remote desert island of pleasure.”