It had the potential to be the start of a new American political dynasty: a young, hotshot George W Bush on a carefully arranged dinner date with Tricia Nixon, the daughter of Richard Nixon, the-then President.

The year was 1968 and long before 22-year-old George ever dreamed of becoming president himself. Unfortunately, the date did not go so well.

"During dinner, I reached for some butter, knocked over a glass, and watched in horror as the stain of red wine crept across the table," Mr Bush recalls in an anecdote-strewn new biography of his father George H W Bush which is released on Tuesday.

It had been George H W Bush, then working in the Nixon administration, who had invited his son, then a pilot in training with the Texas Air National Guard, to meet the president's eldest daughter at a party in honour of the Apollo 8 mission that first orbited the moon.

But things only then went from bad to worse with Miss Nixon. "Then I fired up a cigarette, prompting a polite suggestion from Tricia that I not smoke," he continued. "The date came to an end when she asked me to take her back to the White House immediately after dinner."

More than three decades later, as he drove through the gates of the White House as president, "I thought back to my first visit and had a good chuckle," Mr Bush writes.

The biography, which the younger Bush has called a "love story" about his father is packed with stories about the family which has already given American two presidents and – if Mr Bush has his way – could provide a third if his younger brother, Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, can be persuaded to run in 2016.

Among the other stories from Bush family lore, George W recalls the night before his father's first presidential debate against Michael Dukakis when he had he invited his twin granddaughters, Barbara and Jenna, to stay at the vice presidential residence.

^{Tricia Nixon, centre, with Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Julie and David Eisenhower at the White House in 1970 (AP)}

His preparation was thrown into chaos however, when Barbara, then six, realised that "Spikey" the dog, her favourite stuffed animal without which she could not sleep, was missing. An "intensive search" of the Naval Observatory's house and grounds was launched and, eventually, Spikey was found.

"I don't know what Michael Dukakis was doing before the debate, but I doubt he was looking for a stuffed animal with a flashlight," the younger Bush writes.

More recently, in December 2012, when the elder Bush was hospitalised with a serious illness and the family feared the worst, the younger Bush tells how the old man had put his hand on granddaughter Jenna's pregnant belly and said, "There's death and there's new life." "We all left the room sobbing," Mr Bush writes.