Have I Said Too Much?: My Life in Politics & the Media by Iain Dale (Signed Copy) COMING 15 JULY 2026

Hardback
15 July 2026
Biteback

Signed copy of Iain Dale's autobiography.

Broadcaster Iain Dale has led a life full of incident and success, but also some very public failures. In this searingly honest account of his childhood, and careers in business, politics and media, he tells all for the first time.

Twice broadcaster of the year, he relates how he had given up on a career in radio, until he was given a break by LBC in 2009. Four years later he won the Radio Presenter of the Year award, repeating the feat three years later. He tells of the challenges of presenting an unscripted daily three hour show, explaining the highs and lows of interviewing celebrities and those in power and the astonishingly emotional conversations he has with his ever growing band of listeners. A familiar voice on radio, he’s also become a well known face on television, on shows like Good Morning Britain, Newsnight, the Jeremy Vine Show and Politics Live, as well as recently becoming a royal commentator on Channel 5 royal documentaries.

This is not just a media or political memoir. He tells about his belated ‘coming out’ at the age of 40 and the difficulties which came with it.

There are a lot of tears in this book, mostly from Iain, many of which occur when describing some deeply emotional moments in his life, mostly of a personal nature, but many which happened live on the radio.

Iain says: “I hadn’t really ever thought about writing my life story, despite many people over the years suggesting I should. It was when a friend suggested I should write a couple of chapters, and see if I enjoyed it, that I sat down and realised how many fascinating stories and anecdotes I had to tell. I promised myself that I wouldn’t
beat around the bush, that it would be warts and all, even if I had to talk about some embarrassing moments, and times in my life where I felt an abject failure. This is the result.”

Chapter headings

1. For the Love of Radio
2. The Most Beautiful of all Life’s Seasons - Childhood
3. More Haste, Less Speed - Schooldays
4. Fairy-tale Forests and Cities of Storybooks - Germany
5. Training my Mind in a Fine City - University
6. The Mysteries of Love - Love, relationships and, er, sex
7. The Nascent Political Animal - Into Politics
8. Master of the Trite Press Release - Dock Labour Scheme campagn
9. On the Waterfront - Life as a lobbyist
10. Spreading the Political Word - Politico's Bookshop
11. Encounters with the Iron Lady - Meeting Margaret Thatcher
12. At the Foot of the Greasy Pole - Becoming a candidate
13. Normal for North Norfolk - Running for Parliament
14. Square Pegs, Round Holes - The David Davis leadership campaign
15. Everything is Content - Blogging
16. Slipping off the Greasy Pole - Faiiling to be selected as a candidate
17. Biting Back into Publishing - Total Politics and Biteback Publishing
18. The Consequences of Smearing - The Damian McBride story
19. In Search of the Ayrshire Dales - Scottish ancestry
20. Hosting London’s Biggest Conversation - Joining LBC
21. The Mask and the Mirror - Being on TV
22. The Impossible Office - Meeting and interviewing prime ministers
23. When Radio Goes Wrong
24. Painting Pictures with Words - The art of radio
25. Conversations with Consequences - Memorable calls
26. Namedropping - Meeting celebrities
27. The Challenges of Radio
Epilogue
Acknowledgements 

Author biography
Iain Dale presents the Evening Show on LBC Radio (Monday-Thursday 7pm-10pm). In 2022 he was shortlisted for Audio Presenter of the Year by the Broadcasting Press Guild. He was named Radio Presenter of the Year for 2013 & 2016 at the Arqiva Awards, and was shortlisted for Speech programme of the year at the 2013 Sony Radio Awards. In 2014 he won a Sony Award for ‘Best Interview of the Year’.
Iain is a non executive director of the Lending Standards Board and an ambassador for Diabetes UK and the Royal Osteoporosis Society.
He joined LBC in 2009 and presented the Drivetime show for five and a half years, from March 2013 until August 2018. He has presented four LBC General Election Night Shows, three American Presidential Election overnight shows, as well as the stations Scottish and Brexit referendum night shows.
His most recent books are Why Can’t We All Get Along: Shout Less, Listen More, The Prime Ministers 1721-2020: Three Hundred Years of Political Leadership, The Presidents: 250 Years of American Political Leadership, On This Day in Politics Kings & Queens and The Dictators. In 2025 he has had three books out, Margaret Thatcher, The Taoiseach, British By-Elections 1789-2025.
Iain is a visiting professor of politics and broadcasting at the University of East Anglia, which he graduated from in 1985 with a degree in German and Linguistics. In July 2025 he was awarded an Hon. Doctorate by the University of Kent for services to political broadcasting.
Iain was a panellist on CNN Talk on CNN International and is a regular contributor to Newsnight, Good Morning Britain, Politics Live! and Channel 5’s Jeremy Vine Show.
Iain co-hosts a twice weekly podcast called Where Politics Meets History with historian, Dr Tessa Dunlop. He recorded 500 episodes of the award winning For the Many podcast with former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. His other podcasts include the Iain Dale All Talk podcast and also a podcast of his weekly ‘Cross Question’ political panel show, along with The Presidents, Prime Ministers, Monarchs & Dictators podcast - all available through GlobalPlayer, iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts and all other major podcast platforms.
Until June 2018 Iain was managing director of Britain’s leading political publisher, Biteback Publishing. He formed the company in 2009 and published more than 600 books including Power Trip by Damian McBride and the bestseller, Call me Dave: The Unauthorised Biography of David Cameron by Michael Ashcroft, as well as The Alastair Campbell Diaries.
Iain is one of Britain’s leading political commentators and bloggers. He is a regular columnist for the Telegraph and ‘I’ paper. He has been a contributing editor for GQ Magazine, writes for various national newspapers and for seven years penned a weekly diary for the Eastern Daily Press. For five years he wrote a monthly column in the gay lifestyle magazine, Attitude and was a regular presenter of Radio 4’s What the Papers Say. He wrote a weekly diary column for ConservativeHome.com and was the media critics for Reaction.Life.
He founded Total Politics magazine (sold to Dod’s in December 2012) and was the brains behind Politico’s Bookstore and Politico’s Publishing. He was a presenter of Radio 5 Live’s Sunday Service programme alongside Fi Glover and Charlie Whelan from 2000 to 2004 and presented Planet Politics on Oneword Radio. He is a regular panellist on Radio 4’s Any Questions and has appeared three times on BBC1’s Question Time.
Iain is a former parliamentary researcher and chief of staff to David Davis MP. He was a political lobbyist, financial journalist and is the creator and host of the theatre production A Night With Ann Widdecombe, which toured provincial theatres all around the country. He stood for Parliament at the 2005 general election in North Norfolk, but has now given up active politics.
Iain has written or edited more than sixty books including The NHS: Things That Need to be Said, Memories of Margaret Thatcher, The Big Book of Boris, 500 of the Most Acerbic, Witty & Erudite Things Ever Said About Politics, West Ham: When Football Was Football & Norwich City: When Football Was Football. His latest book, co-edited with Jacqui Smith is Honourable Ladies: Profiles of Women MPs 1918-2019.
He was a political consultant and parliamentary lobbyist, cofounding The Waterfront Partnership and The Waterfront Conference Company. He owned Politico’s Bookshop in Westminster from 1997 to 2004, and continues to run the online political bookshop politicos.co.uk.
Iain grew up near Saffron Walden in Essex but now lives in Tunbridge Wells. He is married to John.
He also blogs on politics, current affairs, media and radio at iaindale.com and edits westhamtillidie.com. He can be found on all forms of social media at @iaindale.