William Collins secures Chorley’s comic Westminster book

William Collins has signed a deal for writer and presenter Matt Chorley’s first book, Planes, Trains and Toilet Doors: 50 Places that Changed British Politics. 

Arabella Pike, publishing director, acquired world rights directly to the début and it will be published on 12th October in hardback, e-book and audio. It will be illustrated by award-winning political cartoonist Morten Morland. 

The publisher said: “Forget Westminster bust-ups and PMQs, some of the key events that have shaped modern British politics didn’t happen in the cloisters of parliament or Downing Street’s corridors of power, but in car parks, village halls and seaside resorts where the mundane play host to the mighty. From Pitt the Younger’s Putney Heath duel to finding Margaret Thatcher a voice coach on a train, Harold Wilson’s Scilly season holidays to John Major’s dental appointment clearing his path to No 10 – these are the places where snap, sometimes daft, decisions changed the course of politics.”  

“Matt Chorley has spent almost two decades covering Westminster, interviewing prime ministers, mocking ministers and chronicling the serious, and sometimes unintentionally hilarious, events which act as unlikely turning points in the direction of a nation,” William Collins said. 

The publisher added: “In Planes, Trains and Toilet Doors he combines his research and smart analysis with his background in comedy to create a highly entertaining and original romp through the highs and lows of British politics.”  

Pike said: “However absurd or tragic modern politics might seem, Matt’s wonderful book demonstrates that it has all happened before. Stuffed with witty and enlightening stories from across Britain, with full colour cartoons, this is the perfect gift for anyone with even a passing interest in politics.” 

Chorley added: “Having started out in local papers, I have always enjoyed the big stories which unfold away from Westminster. Barnard Castle, Limehouse, the Sheffield Rally, the Brighton bomb have become bywords for political drama, and sit alongside the EdStone car park and the street where Nick Clegg pretended to be Tom Hanks as unlikely locations to have decided our national fate. History has been shaped by the would-be prime ministers who gave speeches aged two, faced being expelled aged 16 or who went on to lose their majority in a pub, or up a mountain.”

Chorley is a political journalist, comedian and presenter for Times Radio. He has worked at the Press Association, Western Morning News, Independent on Sunday, MailOnline and the Times, where he now a columnist. Since 2020, he has presented the mid-morning show on Times Radio. He enjoyed a sell-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2005 before touring “This. Is. Not. Normal.” in 2019 and “Who Is In Charge Here?” in 2022. The publication of Planes, Trains and Toilet Doors will coincide with his new tour.