DANNII MINOGUE TO PUBLISH HER AUTOBIOGRAPHY

(NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: This is not the book cover)

Simon and Schuster UK has acquired the world-wide rights to a deeply personal and long-awaited memoir by Dannii Minogue, Mike Jones, non-fiction Editorial Director announced today. In a competitive auction, the rights to the first ever autobiography by the pop singer, actress, TV star, fashion icon and mum-to-be were acquired from Pat Lomax at Bell Lomax Literary Agency. The book is scheduled for publication in autumn 2010.

The currently untitled autobiography will offer an intimate account of Dannii’s childhood in Australia, her rise to teenage TV stardom in Home And Away, her relationship with sister Kylie, her marriage and subsequent divorce, her international pop career, the trials and tribulations of her role as X-Factor judge, as well as her relationship with model Kris Smith, with whom she’s expecting her first baby with in July.

Dannii says: “I feel as though a whole life chapter is closing, and a new exciting one is unfolding. It feels like the right time to put pen to paper to account my first 38 years. It’s important to me that the book contains all the ups and downs of my life so far, with many stories untold. I’m thrilled to be teaming up with Simon & Schuster to finally put my story on record."

Mike Jones says: "Dannii has an amazing story to tell. She’s greatly loved and admired here in the UK and around the world. Dannii has never written about her life before, and this promises to be a revealing, personal, touching and hugely entertaining book. We’re extremely proud to be publishing this book with Dannii and looking forward to working with her, and bringing it to a wide audience this coming autumn”.

Dannii will co-write her autobiography with songwriter / record producer turned signed-author Terry Ronald. As well as being close friends, the pair have a professional relationship spanning nearly two decades; collaborating on numerous Top Ten hit singles, including; ‘This Is It’ (1993), ‘All I Wanna Do’ (1997), ‘Who Do You Love Now?’ (2001), ‘Put The Needle On It’ (2002) and ‘I Begin To Wonder’ (2003). Together they form the perfect partnership to bring the true Dannii story to the public arena.

Terry says: “Dannii and I have been both work colleagues and the closest of friends for almost 20 years. I've been an eye-witness as well as confidant during the many highs and lows of her personal and professional life. I'm extremely excited about working with her to document her amazing story.”

The last year has seen Dannii’s star ascend into the stratosphere, becoming a bona fide national treasure, as hailed by the UK media. Most recently, following her triumphant 2009 season on The X Factor, watched by a peak of 19.2 million, Dannii has been crowned ‘Best TV Star’ by the readers of Elle magazine and ‘Ultimate TV Personality’ by Cosmopolitan. Vogue also named Dannii one of the world’s Top Ten most stylish women. Dannii will make her Marks & Spencer debut this month in their Spring / Summer TV campaign. She will also launch her first fashion collection ‘Project D’ in the UK in June.

Picture (C) George Angelovski. Not to be reproduced without permission.