David Cameron’s autobiography will be published in September, his publisher has announced.

Cameron sold the rights to his memoir to William Collins, an imprint of HarperCollins, for a reported £800,000 in 2016 and promised to give a frank account of his time in Downing Street.

On Thursday the publisher said the book, For the Record, would be published on 19 September.

We are pleased to announce that @WmCollinsBooks – an imprint of HarperCollins UK – will publish former Prime Minister David Cameron’s autobiography this autumn. FOR THE RECORD will be released on Thursday 19th September, in hardback, ebook and audio. pic.twitter.com/IQU5lZyslX — HarperCollinsUK (@HarperCollinsUK) May 16, 2019

There had been reports Cameron intended to hold off until after the UK leaves the EU. The book was initially scheduled for 2018 but the release was delayed until autumn 2019, reportedly so that he would not be seen as a “backstreet driver” in Theresa May’s handling of Brexit.

The Daily Mail’s diary editor, Sebastian Shakespeare, wrote in April that plans to start publicising the book after the UK’s initial EU withdrawal date of 29March had to be postponed as Cameron had given May “a private understanding” that it would not be published before Brexit so as “not to rock the boat”.

The paper reported that Cameron finished a draft of the book this year and was asked to cut 100,000 words from the manuscript. HarperCollins responded to the Daily Mail report by saying the book would be published in the autumn as planned.

The September date means the book will come out 10 days before the Conservative party conference in Manchester, which runs from 29 September to 2 October. As things stand the UK is due to leave the EU on 31 October.

When the plans for the book were first announced, Cameron said: “It was an immense privilege to lead the Conservative party for more than a decade and the country for over six years as prime minister. I am looking forward to having the opportunity to explain the decisions I took and why I took them. I will be frank about what worked and what didn’t.”

The book will cover Cameron’s decision to call a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU and the result, which led him to quit as prime minister. It will also cover the Scottish independence vote and his efforts to reform the economy, welfare and education.

In 2017 Cameron attracted widespread derision when it emerged he had spent £25,000 on a luxury hut for his Cotswolds garden, which he planned to use as a writing studio.

The handbuilt hut had sheep’s wool insulation, a wood-burning stove, Bakelite light switches, hardwood stable doors and a pullout double sofa bed. It was painted in Farrow and Ball in the colours Clunch, Old White and Mouse’s Back.