The former US president's memoirs are to be published in November, and will consist of an account of his key decisions. Below is an exclusive preview from the first draft . . .

Point 1 One of the biggest decisions of my life was the day I decided not to be an alcoholic any more. I don't remember any decisions before that.

Point 2 Everybody remembers where they were on September 11, 2001. And everybody remembers where I was, including me. I was in a school in Florida, listening intently as some children read a story called The Pet Goat. It was about a little girl who had a goat that ate everything. Her parents wanted to get rid of it.

At some point my chief of staff, Andrew Card, whispered to me that America was under attack. Immediately I made the decision to carry on listening to the children. I've faced some criticism for that, but I knew then that I was facing the hardest day of my presidency, with some tough choices ahead of me. I would need all my powers of concentration and judgment, and I couldn't afford to be distracted by wondering how the story ended. I had to find out what happened to that goat.

Point 3 The decision to invade Iraq was not taken lightly. At the time I thought Saddam and Bin Laden were working closely together on terrorism; in fact I was under the impression that they were somehow related, but that turned out not to be true. Even so, I was not sure I wanted to commit American troops to an invasion.

I remember the day I took Cheney and Rumsfeld into the Oval Office and told them what I had decided: that they must decide. In an executive position it's very important to delegate, and I've never for one moment regretted the Iraq war not being my fault.

Point 4 Not every choice I made was the right one. Sometimes when I have made a decision to choose someone to make decisions, that person has let me down. That's what happened after Hurricane Katrina, but of course I was still the president, so I had to take responsibility for the terrible mistakes of others, even though I was on vacation. Looking back, that seems totally unfair.

Point 5 Occasionally one has to make split-second decisions. There's no time to think, you know, should I lean to the left or right on this one? You just move – any which way! – and if you're lucky, the shoe flies over your head. That's also how I did my Supreme Court nominations.