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Fat advance for slimmed down Oprah

Television’s first lady has just scored the biggest non-fiction book deal ever. antonia bland cheers a very modern heroine

If anyone deserves a $12m-plus book advance, breaking the world record for a non-fiction title, it's Oprah Winfrey. Her chronicle of how she battled with her weight (and won) is bound to be bought and read by millions. In publishing terms, says New York book critic John Leonard, "it's bullet-proof".

The exact amount of her advance from New York publisher Simon & Schuster has not been disclosed; but we are assured that it is more than the record $12m paid to Bill Clinton for his autobiography, My Life.

Oprah, who is to co-author the book with her personal fitness guru Bob Greene, has wrestled her figure from a peak of 238lb to the sleek 140lb version you're more likely to see on her O magazine covers.

But all along she has also campaigned for
Oprah has wrestled her figure from a peak of 238lb to the sleek 140lb version you now see in magazines

a healthier America. It's an uphill battle. Brits - who no longer have the right to sniff at "fat Americans" having joined the western world's fat brigade themselves - need to understand that the American tendency to over-snack is born of their God-given right to a happy life; the Declaration of Independence, that bedrock of the American psyche, includes "the pursuit of happiness".

For 20 years, Oprah has educated Americans about self-image, self-esteem, how to love themselves and others - and, with the Oprah Book Club, how to enjoy a good read.

Indeed, the entire New York publishing community should be clubbing together to foot Simon & Schuster's bill; not since the heyday of the "Book of the Month" club has anyone done so much to promote book-buying. And we're not talking dross: among her favourites are Toni Morrison's Sula and The Bluest Eye; Maya Angelou's elegaic I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings; and the harrowing Night by the Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.

I tried yesterday - but failed - to find a single woman friend in North America who