In an interview with Fox News, Dubya revealed he was planning on writing a book, although he hasn't quite pinned down what he'll be writing about yet. "I'm not quite exactly sure what it's going to be, but I'm toying with the idea of maybe describing the toughest decisions I had to make as president, and the context in which I made them," he told interviewer Brit Hume. "What's evident to me is that it is very hard for people to remember what life was like a mere four or five years ago, and it's going to be very important for me to recreate the environment in which I had to make certain decisions, particularly the environment right after September the 11th, 2001."

Although he refused to be drawn on how long it would take him to deliver the book - "that's the kind of question I better not answer ... I'll say two years, and it'll be four" – Bush was sure that his "type A" personality would mean it wouldn't be too lengthy a project. "I require things to do, and I bet once I get going on this book, I'll be able to get 'er done," he said.

The news follows his former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff Karl Rove's surprise revelation on 26 December that Bush devoured a total of 40 books in 2008, 51 in 2007 and 95 in 2006, with reading matter an erudite mix of history and biography - as well as an annual flick through the Bible, and an excursion into existentialism with Albert Camus's The Stranger in 2006.

Alexander II, who ruled Russia from 1855 to 1881, was known as the "Czar Liberator" because he freed 23 million Russian slaves in 1861, two years before Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. But his governmental reforms ultimately were his undoing. On the right, they provoked a conservative backlash. On the left, they contributed to a radical political movement that used violence to accomplish its aims, including a wave of murders and bombings.

When he decided to halt the reform process, the violence intensified. Alexander II became, in effect, the first world leader to declare a war on terrorism.