Bush book starts with decision to quit drinking

FORMER US president George Bush said his upcoming book would begin with an anecdote about his wife persuading him to give up drinking by pushing him to decide whether he preferred booze to fatherhood.

Bush said Decision Points, to be published in November, opened with the scene and him questioning whether he loved booze more than his wife, Laura. He said he realised he had an addictive personality and stopped drinking. That act set him on the path to the presidency, Bush said in his address to an American Wind Energy Association conference in Dallas.

He said the book was less autobiography and more an analysis of key decisions in his life, both before and after he was elected president.