Gradin lacking Swedish spice

While the media hangs on every word uttered by Margot Wallström, nobody seems interested about what Sweden's previous commissioner has to say. Former justice chief Anita Gradin is shopping around her memoirs but their lack of spice is not attracting publishers because Gradin sheds little light on the 1999 downfall of Jacques Santer's team, of which she was a member. "The problem is that she doesn't spill enough beans," said a source who's pored over the manuscript. Perhaps she should take a leaf from her erstwhile Danish colleague Ritt Bjerregaard's book. When the so-called 'Ice Maiden' held the environment brief in 1995, she kept a diary which made plain the low esteem in which she held several fellow commissioners. Under duress, Bjerregaard agreed to pulp the page-turner - but not before Copenhagen daily Politiken had published extensive excerpts.