S&S signs 'eye-opening' book on Tory Britain by Earle

Simon & Schuster UK has acquired Tory Nation: How One Party Conquered the UK by Samuel Earle.

Commissioning editor Assallah Tahir acquired UK and Commonwealth rights for the non-fiction work at auction from Kat Aitken at United Agents. Tory Nation will publish in spring 2023.

Tory Nation will examine how the Conservative Party came to dominate the nation, "showing itself to be practically immune to a string of catastrophic failures and scandals". It will argue that our democracy is not a pendulum swinging evenly between two parties but closer to a one-party state. "Take away [Tony] Blair’s victories, and Labour has only been in power for 18 of the last 100 years. The Tories, either alone or in coalition, have ruled for the rest," the synopsis states. 

Tahir said: "Why do the Tories keep winning? Sam has put his finger on a question that baffles so many of us, and his proposal, which puts the current political landscape in much-needed context, is eye-opening, chilling and rousing. It’s astonishing that the Conservative record in government isn’t subject to endless debate in a country that prides itself on its democracy. This is a book we all desperately need to read, and I’m honoured to be publishing it."

Earle is a journalist and political commentator living in London. He writes regularly for the New York Times, the Guardian, London Review of Books, Atlantic, New Republic and New Statesman. He also teaches journalism at University College London.

"I’m delighted to be working with Simon & Schuster to publish this book, which I hope will resolve one of the defining riddles of British politics today: how the Conservative Party seems so impervious to scandal, whether it’s proroguing parliament or throwing parties in a pandemic," he said. "The answer lies not with one politician or a weak opposition, but in a party and nation that have evolved together over two centuries. The Conservatives are, by many accounts, both the most successful and oldest party in the world. Tory Nation will be the story of Conservative success, and of Britain itself: how one party came to dominate its culture, identity and democracy."