The operation to publish Cherie Blair’s memoirs was executed amid remarkable secrecy.

Until last night, when printing began for the first time, not even paper page proofs of the book had existed.

Everything was stored electronically, mainly on memory sticks, to protect the often breathtakingly candid content of the autobiography, entitled Speaking for Myself. Only a very select handful of people had been privy to the copy.

But a sadness underlines its publication. Mrs Blair’s literary agent Kate Jones died, aged 46, in February this year before it was fully completed. In her mid-thirties Jones, a hugely charismatic and respected figure in the publishing world, had been treated successfully for breast cancer but this year, only five days before her death, she was found to be suffering from advanced liver cancer.

The truth about Tony and Gordon

Cherie Blair reveals her husband is advising Gordon Brown but says he did not trust him enough to stand down early

• 'The problem with me and Gordon is nothing personal'

• Cherie Blair: motherhood, makeovers and making ends meet – my life in Downing Street

• Cherie Blair: the secrecy and sadness behind a remarkable memoir

Multimedia

• Full coverage: Cherie Blair autobiography

Background

• My complex life in Downing Street

• Secrecy and sadness behind memoir

• Leo: my miracle baby at 45 (and yes, he did have the MMR jab)

• The night I hated Tony

Background

• Miscarriage: ‘I'm afraid the baby's dead, Mrs Blair'

• The Queen and I: relations with the royals

• Cherie Blair's face-off with Campbell over Caplin

• Peter Foster and the ‘scandal' that never was

She first met Mrs Blair early last year and, says Mrs Blair, the two women clicked. Kate Jones quietly negotiated the deal with Little, Brown without it being subjected to a bidding war. It was one of the last big projects she handled.

Last night Mrs Blair, whose own Aunt Audrey died aged 52 from breast cancer, said that it was Jones’s death that confirmed her decision that the charity to which she would donate some of the proceeds of her book would be Breast Cancer Care.

“She was a wonderful woman,” said Mrs Blair, who added that she had considered dedicating the book to her. In the event that honour goes to Mrs Blair’s mother, Gale, and her grandmother, Vera, but Mrs Blair makes her final acknowledgement in the book to Kate Jones, the woman “whose vision and encouragement got me started then kept me going”.

The book took about nine months to write with Mrs Blair snatching moments on her laptop to type, often at nights and during long journeys. On one flight to America she wrote solidly for six hours. Although she had no official ghost writer, she was guided by her editors Ursula McKenzie, Antonia Hodgson and Vivien Redman, and by Kate Jones, who read the early drafts. It was Ms McKenzie who handled Edwina Currie’s revelatory memoirs.

Although the book is dense with detail, Mrs Blair said that she had not been keeping an exhaustive diary. “In No 10 I didn’t keep a diary,” she said, “but I have got all my old calendars and old e-mails. I write a lot of stuff on e-mail.”

Liz Sich, a spokesman for the publishers, said: “Kate completely understood why [Cherie] wanted to do it. She knew she wanted to tell the story of a complete life, not just the Downing Street years.” Ms Sich said Mrs Blair had had editorial help but added: “She can tell a story. It is very much her voice.” breastcancercare.org.uk

Times Recommends

• Indians fly in to outspend the Americans
• James Purnell: what job does Labour's star want?
• Has time finally run out for Dr Who?