Norwich City chairman and former Labour politician Ed Balls is to publish a memoir of his time in politics in the run-up to the party's crucial annual conference in the autumn.

Mr Balls was appointed Norwich City chairman in December. Publishers Hutchinson promised the book will amount to a 'reckoning' of Mr Balls' time at the heart of Gordon Brown's administration and Ed Miliband's shadow cabinet, offering 'revelatory' detail about the personalities involved and 'candour' over mistakes that were made.

The book, called 'Speaking Out - Lessons In Life And Politics' will come out on September 8, a fortnight before Jeremy Corbyn's second conference as leader in Liverpool, and may reignite debate within the party about the reasons for last year's disastrous general election defeat.

Hutchinson editorial director Tom Avery said: 'Speaking Out is a brave and revelatory account by an influential thinker and an extraordinary politician.

'It is a project that is unique in its candour, eloquence and range: a reckoning, a record of a remarkable career and a rallying cry. It is a work of real importance and one that we are enormously proud to be publishing at Hutchinson.'

The publishers said Mr Balls would use the book to talk about 'victory and failure: about the mistakes made, change delivered and personalities encountered over the course of two decades at the frontline of British politics'.

After losing his seat in last year's election, Mr Balls has become a senior fellow at Harvard University and chairman of Norwich City FC.

He has stayed largely out of the political limelight, emerging this week to campaign on behalf of the Remain side in the EU referendum.