HENLEY MP and former deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine has answered critics of his autobiography by saying he does not go in for the bitchy small talk that some people wanted.

HENLEY MP and former deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine has answered critics of his autobiography by saying he does not go in for the bitchy small talk that some people wanted.

Mr Heseltine, whose constituency includes Thame and Chinnor, is due to come to High Wycombe this afternoon to sign copies of the book at Ottakar's in White Hart Street. It has been criticised by some who say it should have had more anecdotes and sharp comments from his 30 years in front-line politics.

Mr Heseltine told the Free Press: 'They wanted bitchy small talk. That is not in my character. When the book was being prepared people suggested it, debates took place and I said it's just not me. I don't behave like that in private or in public. I certainly wasn't going to do it through books.'

Among his critics was former Cabinet colleague Norman Tebbit who shared crucial decisions with Mr Heseltine during the Thatcher years.

Mr Tebbit reviewed the book, Life in the Jungle, for the Sunday Telegraph, and called it 'a tragic story of obsession and vanity.'

He said: 'There is really nothing new in this book. No smoking gun in Margaret Thatcher's hand. Extraordinarily, Heseltine says that once she was brought down her 'poison' was drained and all was well.'

He also said: 'Long passages of the book are turgid, not to say self-serving.'

Mr Heseltine said: 'I've nothing to say. That's Norman.'

Mr Heseltine - or Tarzan as he was once nicknamed after excitedly swinging the mace around in the Commons amid uproar - has been MP for Henley since 1974.

Now 67, he recently announced that he will not stand again at the next general election. He has had heart trouble and, with Europhiles Kenneth Clarke and Sir Ray Whitney, Wycombe's MP, he has sometimes been at odds with party leaders over Europe and the euro.

However, he is backing the party on other policies, he said last week.

His home, Thenford House, is set in 400 rolling acres on the Oxfordshire-Northants border, close to Henley, and he says he will be able to pursue his pastimes including birdwatching and improving his 50 acre arboretum in the grounds.

He said he also wants to spend more time as chairman of Conservative Mainstream, the party's pro-Europe group, and as chairman of the Haymarket publishing group. He is also on the Anglo-China Forum, forging closer trade and cultural links with China.

He has shared joint meeting platforms with Tony Blair on the need to join the euro as soon as possible, and told the Free Press: 'The only question is when we join. Why shackle British companies with extra cost of high interest rates and exchange rate uncertainties?'