Updated Corbyn colouring book to be rush-released

Old Street Publishing is to rush-release an updated version of its 2015 hit The Corbyn Colouring Book, following last week's general election.

Last Thursday's (9th June) vote saw the Conservatives fail to win a majority government, and Labour (led by leader Jeremy Corbyn) increase its number of seats by 30 – contradicting many pollsters’ predictions of a Tory landslide. Old Street Publishing is to release a new version of the Corbyn Colouring Book to provide a momento for the election.

The Corbyn Colouring Book: UPDATED – NOW WITH EVEN LESS AUSTERITY will be published on 23rd June 2017.

Designed by illustrator and designer James Nunn, the A5 book invites readers to "relive the excitement of #GE2017 over and over again". Alongside "old favourites" like 'Obi-Wan Kenobyn', 'Jez parting the Red Sea' and the 'Sistine Corbyn', the book contains new scenes including a ‘Make Jam not War’ poster, a "fiendishly challenging" ‘Where’s Theresa?’ spread, and a chance to "pimp your voting slip".

The book has been pitched as a "perfect commemorative gift" for "genuine colourers, political types and newshounds". It will be priced at £7.99.

The original edition of the book was rushed out for Christmas 2015, but there is a "bigger market than we were able to reach at short notice", the publisher said.

The original colouring book has sold 17,465 copies, and last week posted a 129% boost in volume week-on-week, according to Nielsen BookScan. Over the eight weeks of the election campaign compared to the eight weeks before, sales for the title went up 173%—from 85 copies to 232.

Ben Yarde-Buller, publisher at Old Street, told The Bookseller: "I can’t pretend there isn’t a profit motive at work: we are hoping people will buy it. Also, we’re almost out of our previous edition (we’ve sold over 20,000 copies). And things have moved on: Corbyn as populist (and popular) youth leader was entirely absent from the first edition. And there have been plenty of bizarre or funny incidents in recent weeks to inspire James Nunn, the illustrator, to even dizzier heights of humorousness (and silliness)."

He added: "Don’t you reckon this election deserves a memento of some kind, however modest? It was almost exciting. Things changed a bit. Some mildly left-wing policies re-entered the mainstream. To the astonishment of old people, lots of young people voted – quelle horreur! Maybe they'll also start buying books! Houra...! Incidentally, our other imminent title is called Blowback: How the West f*cked up the Middle East, so it’s quite refreshing to publish something that might actually cheer some people up."