As he prepares to publish his debut book in a deal worth $250,000, outspoken former Simon Langton schoolboy Milo Yiannopoulos has boasted: “I’m more powerful, more influential and more fabulous than ever before.”

The 33-year-old, infamous for his attacks on political correctness, was at the centre of a free speech row after the Canterbury grammar school cancelled a talk he was due to give to more than 200 sixth formers.

School leaders caved in to pressure following threats of a protest and a complaint to the Department for Education’s counter extremism unit about the ex-pupil’s impending visit.

Milo’s book Dangerous is being released by American publishing house Simon & Schuster in March – and is already provoking controversy.

The Chicago Review of Books announced it would not review any of Simon and Schuster’s books throughout 2017 as a results of its deal with him.

Milo, who left the Langton without completing his studies, is receiving a reported quarter-of-a-million dollars for the book, which is autobiographical.

He said: “I met with top execs at Simon & Schuster earlier in the year and spent half-an-hour trying to shock them with lewd jokes and outrageous opinions.

"I thought they were going to have me escorted from the building –but instead they offered me a wheelbarrow full of money.”

"I’m more powerful, more influential and more fabulous than ever before, and this book is the moment Milo goes mainstream - debut author Milo Yiannopoulos

Milo, who works as a public speaker and is an editor at the right-wing Breitbart website, was due to speak at the school in November on the subject of Donald Trump’s US election victory after supporting the businessman’s candidacy.

Last year he argued that “gay rights have made us dumber”, birth control made women “unattractive and crazy” and once opened a speech by saying “feminism is cancer”.

A group of 50 academics and officers from Canterbury Christ Church University and the University of Kent objected to Milo’s Langton visit.

Their open letter complained: “In this respect, the school’s capitalisation on the recent visit of a scholar from the University of Kent to discuss feminism, civil rights and LGTBIQ+ issues in order to justify inviting a charlatan is beyond offensive.

“To suggest that this preacher of hate and intolerance, this professional provocateur, this glorified internet troll is in any way equivalent or counterpart to people devoting their lives to tackling discrimination…is wholly unacceptable.”

Revelling in his notoriety, Milo responded: “Every line of attack the forces of political correctness try on me fails pathetically.

"I’m more powerful, more influential and more fabulous than ever before, and this book is the moment Milo goes mainstream. Social justice warriors should be scared –very scared.”

Prof James Soderholm, the Langton’s director of humanities who organised Milo’s aborted visit, says efforts at censorship are destined to backfire.

“Attempts to police and censor Milo tend to intensify interest in his personality and his beliefs,” Prof Soderholm said.

“How many celebrated books started out being banned?

"How much of that celebration is the result of their having been banned? The most effective way to deal with something objectionable is to treat it with utter indifference.

“Milo succeeds because his outrageousness would seem to make indifference impossible. Like any stunning peacock, Milo spreads his verbal plumes and few can resist dashing over to see the show.

“I can only hope his book is much more than showbusiness.

"If Milo were to produce a thoughtful, compelling, well-reasoned and substantial book, that effort would quash his critics and demonstrate that there is more to him than his self-avowed fabulousness.”