Stewart Lee's Brexit book goes to Faber

Faber will publish comedian Stewart Lee’s next book, March of the Lemmings, based on his newspaper columns providing “the scathing, riotous record the Brexit era deserves”.

The title from the multiple British Comedy Award and BAFTA winning comedian and writer will be published on 5th September to coincide with his new tour ‘Snowflake/Tornado’. 

Editorial director Laura Hassan, who is currently on maternity leave, and publisher Alex Bowler acquired world all language rights from Debi Allen at Curtis Brown.    

“As a Metropolitan Elitist Snowflake, Stewart Lee was disappointed by the Brexit referendum result of 2016. But he knew how to weaponise his inconvenience,” the synopsis reads. “He would treat all his subsequent writing, until we left the EU, as interrelated episodes of a complete work. The cast of characters include Lemming-obsessed Michael Gove, violent tanning-salon entrepreneur Tommy Robinson and Boris Piccaninny Watermelon Bumboys Letterbox Cake Disaster Weightloss Haircut Bullshit Johnson."

There is also a "a dramatic chorus is made up of online commenters and Kremlin bots" with Lee cast as the "defeated, unreliable narrator-hero, whose resolve and tolerance would gradually unravel as the horror show dragged on". 

Faber said of the deal: “Drawing on three years of newspaper columns, a complete transcript of the 'Content Provider' stand-up show, and Lee’s caustic footnote commentary, March of the Lemmings is the scathing, riotous record the Brexit era deserves.”

The comedian's last book, Content Provider, was published by Faber in 2016.

Lee's first book with Faber, How I Escaped My Certain Fate, was published in 2010. The follow-up, If You Prefer a Comedian, was published in 2012. His next series of Comedy Vehicle will be on BBC2 in Spring 2016 and he is the curator of the 2016 ATP Festival.

Lee began stand-up in 1988 at the age of 20, and won the Hackney Empire new act of the year award in 1990. He has gone on to deliver a number of award-winning tours