Dorries appointed new culture secretary

MP and novelist Nadine Dorries has been appointed as the new secretary of state for culture, media and sport, taking over from Oliver Dowden.

The move was part of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle. Dorries becomes the 10th culture secretary in 10 years. 

The Tory MP for Mid Bedfordshire was previously health minister and is also an author, published by Head of Zeus.

She was first published in 2014 with The Four Streets and has gone on to write a string of historical books either set in Liverpool, where she grew up and trained as a nurse, or the west coast of Ireland, where one of her grandmothers came from.

Through Nielsen BookScan in the UK she has sold 364,227 books for £1.64m, with her bestseller The Angels of Lovely Lane (Head of Zeus) on 56,322 copies. The author has also sold around two million copies in e-book, according to Head of Zeus and her agent Piers Blofeld at Sheil Land Associates.

Dorries also became well known outside Westminster for her 2012 appearance on ITV's "I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!"