Before it hit the headlines Monday, Peter C. Newman's Brian Mulroney book was one of the most hush-hush projects in Canadian publishing.
Random House of Canada had quietly printed 25,000 copies of The Secret Mulroney Tapes, followed by two more printings of 10,000 apiece, said Tracey Turriff, vice-president, director of marketing and corporate communications.
"Now, an additional printing of 10,000 has been called and we anticipate further printings still," she said Wednesday. "The demand has been great, and we are rushing to fill that demand as quickly as we can."
"The lists haven't come out yet, officially," Turriff said. "Our preliminary sales figures would suggest it is a bestseller."
The material in the book is based on 330 conversations with Mulroney that took place over 20 years. They include crude comments about his successor Kim Campbell, startling admissions about the Meech Lake Accord and vicious outbursts at the media and anyone else he felt deprived him of his legacy as, he believes, the greatest prime minister since John A. Macdonald.
Mulroney served as prime minister from Sept. 1984 to June 1993. After he left office, his Progressive Conservative party was trounced by Jean Chrétien's Liberals.
