The Worst Timed Book of all Time?

[Dim]

f John Kerry came across as stiff and awkward during his bid for the White House, then a very different picture of him is emerging - as a silver-tongued womaniser - in a book to go on sale this month.


Lee Roystone, a former girlfriend of Mr Kerry, has written a semi-autobiographical novel in which her fictional alter ego, Nikki Matthews, has an on-off affair with a dashing Massachusetts senator - a Democrat whom she says is modelled on Mr Kerry.

Nikki, a Harvard graduate, describes her politician lover as a "caveman" in the bedroom who would whisper sweet nothings to her in French - a language Mr Kerry speaks fluently. He also has a home on Beacon Hill, Boston, as does Mr Kerry.

In another part of Hedge Fund Mistress, Nikki tells a friend about a particularly wild encounter over dinner with her political paramour, Sen Jim Hoyt. "We were sitting at one end of the long dining room table and suddenly we were feeding each other and kissing, and all over each other, and undressing each other and plates were falling on the floor, food was everywhere, you know, our usual combustible frenzy, and then he carried me to the bedroom," she writes. Asked by her friend what happened next, Nikki says: "We made mad, passionate love and he immediately fell asleep." The unfortunate Nikki, however, almost dies as the senator lies snoring while she goes into anaphylactic shock from eating shellfish.

Miss Roystone recently caused a stir when she unveiled a website of memorabilia dating from her relationship with Mr Kerry 14 years ago.

She finished the book several months ago, but delayed publication until after the election. Miss Roystone feared jeopardising the ambitions of a man whom she admits that she is still besotted with, although he broke her heart.

She says that she had a 20-month affair with Mr Kerry, who was single at the time after his divorce from his first wife, Julia Thorne. He started to see Teresa Heinz, the widowed ketchup and baked beans heiress, in 1992 and they married in 1995.

The Telegraph is the first newspaper to see the final draft of the book which Miss Roystone is bringing out in a self-publishing deal later this month. Even after the election, Hedge Fund Mistress promises to embarrass Mr Kerry.

Although her Mills and Boon writing style will not win rave reviews, readers are treated to an "insider" account of the senator's bachelor days. Nikki describes the first time she met Sen Hoyt at a Democratic fund-raiser. "His dark eyes - were they green or brown or hazel? - skittered around until they came to rest on her high black heels. His gaze moved slowly up the length of her body until they met her eyes. Nikki felt an electric jolt." Elsewhere, she describes massaging his back as he discusses the first Gulf war on the telephone. Nikki tells her friend: "You don't interrupt a man with useless chatter when he's mulling over world events."

Their romance, however, was not to last. Humiliated several times as the senator attends functions with other women, Nikki almost stops eating and eventually becomes seriously ill. "The events in the chapter are all true," said Miss Roystone, 42, last week. "I don't think there's anything derogatory or pornographic there, but I have told the story as it was. I'd thought of sending him a copy, but perhaps I'll let him go out and buy it in a bookstore. He's pretty thick-skinned and I doubt this will puncture that.

"I was young and smitten back then, and he was single and attractive. There were a lot of women in his life at that time. I still think very highly of him, but I sometimes wonder if he thinks about those little women now, about what happened to them."

The book's title refers to Nikki's subsequent affairs with two billionaires - a pharmaceutical heir and a hedge fund supremo. The tale of infidelity and murder is largely played out in the affluent town of Greenwich, Connecticut, where Miss Roystone lives.

It culminates when Sen Hoyt runs for president several years after his fling with Nikki but loses, after a closely-fought campaign.

Mr Kerry and his campaign staff made no comment about Miss Roystone's claims.

[patriot]

describes her politician lover as a "caveman" in the bedroom

There's an image I can do without...

[seeker]

it's sad though - after the primary season, I did grow to respect Kerry as I covered him / Edwards on the campaign trail - despite the "neoliberal" streak (with is as bad as "neconservative", in , say, a Venezuelan or Cuban context), he still had leagues of empathy more than George W could ever muster (that's a Robert S McNamara lesson-reference, incidentally - from 'Fog Of War'). To think W didn't even have a passport until he was el presidente. W should be encased in a cell of pages of history books and only allowed his freedom by reading his way out.

On another note: highlight of covering the DNC - meeting Ambassador Joe Wilson ("can I break Robert Novak's legs for you, sir?"...lol), and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), as well as Daniel Ellsberg.


awww crap - my second post and I already talked politics. I promised myself I would do this...i'm sorry.

[Dim]

On another note: highlight of covering the DNC - meeting Ambassador Joe Wilson ("can I break Robert Novak's legs for you, sir?"...lol), and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), as well as Daniel Ellsberg.

What does Daniel Ellsberg do these days?

[seeker]

On another note: highlight of covering the DNC - meeting Ambassador Joe Wilson ("can I break Robert Novak's legs for you, sir?"...lol), and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), as well as Daniel Ellsberg.

What does Daniel Ellsberg do these days?

protests, generally. At Faneuil Hall he was advocating that people vote Kerry in the swing states and vote Green or Nader in the strong Democrat states.

Good speaker though. Some may disagree - but leakers are necessary.