Yahoo News Boris Johnson Eyes Writing After Politics
David Cameron will no doubt issue a slight sigh of relief when he hears Boris Johnson may have plans beyond politics when he finishes as Mayor of London in 2016.
Mr Johnson, 49, was quizzed about his intentions as he opened the Melbourne Writers Festival in Australia and revealed he is considering becoming a full-time writer.
But the Oxford graduate, who studied classics, is considering a very different subject matter to his usual interests - that of romantic fiction.
According to Nine News for MSN, he told the festival: "I may take up my pen. I would love to write a genuinely brilliant, rip-roaring airport book.
He joked that he could write under a pseudonym, following in the footsteps of JK Rowling, who secretly published her latest novel - a crime thriller - as Robert Galbraith.
"What an incredible thing for her to produce a thriller in the name of a man that everybody gives knockout reviews," he said.
"It would be fair to say there is virtually no genre that I have not tried. Romantic fiction, that could be next."
His pen name would be Rosie M Banks, he joked, and the book would have "sinister-looking orchids on the cover".
"In a trance, you will buy this blockbuster by Rosie M Banks and I hope to be somewhere quietly raking it in," he said.
Rosie M Banks is a fictional romance novelist who recurs as a character in PG Wodehouse's Jeeves books.
Mr Johnson, who started his career in journalism before moving into politics, has already written several books including non-fiction works on London, the Romans and British culture.
He also wrote a comic political novel called Seventy-Two Virgins in 2004, which Amazon explains features a "hapless Member of Parliament" who rides a bicycle.
Mr Johnson's ambitions to become Tory leader and Prime Minister have been the subject of speculation for years but he insists he fully supports Mr Cameron.
This week, he predicted Mr Cameron would be Prime Minister for a "very long time", calling Labour's alternative "pitifully thin".
His younger brother Jo is already working in Downing Street as head of policy and Mr Johnson openly admits he could beat him to the top job.
He told The Australian newspaper: "I think it very likely and I think he'd be brilliant," insisting he would never "shaft" his brother like Ed Miliband.
