James Blunt says he has trolls to thank for his new book.

The 'You're Beautiful' hitmaker releases his humorous biography, 'How To Be A Complete and Utter Blunt: Diary of a Reluctant Social Media Sensation', this week.

And James admitted being mocked online and coronavirus preventing him from touring the world, has made it possible for him to release his first tome.

He told Britain's Metro newspaper: "You can stop me doing live music by introducing a virus, but in doing so I will just put a book out."

The 46-year-old singer and former Army officer is famously known for replying to nasty tweets with witty and scathing comments, but when he was first trolled, it was a "shock" to him.

He explained: "I was selling albums in the millions which was a surprise too. You get that people might buy it, but then you have people who are very angry with my existence which was a shock. I am not that bothered by stuff I don’t enjoy or like.

"If there is a TV show I don’t like I don’t watch it. It would be weird of me to go online to say how much I dislike it. But people do. Humans are crazy like it."

James admitted "Twitter brings out the worst in people" and described himself as a "vulgar idiot".

He added: "Twitter allows me to reply to people as a human rather than a marketing team … in fact, I am just a vulgar idiot.

"Twitter brings out the worst in people and Instagram brings out a side in people to show off their life that doesn’t really exist. "That results in other people feeling inadequate about themselves."

The 'Cold' singer is glad social media exists simply "for that reason I have a book out".

However, he warned that: "Society has become very self-orientated … narcissistic. Will children think their parents are mad because they spend time looking at their phones? Probably not because they just spend their time looking at the iPad."