From Blair to Brexit: John O’Farrell reveals details of sequel to iconic memoir Things Can Only Get Better

Now activist and author John O’Farrell has revealed details of his long-awaited follow-up to Things Can Only Get Better: Eighteen Miserable Years in the Life of a Labour Supporter.

The new book will pick up the story at Labour’s victory in 1997 and go through the premierships of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown before the arrival of David Cameron and the vote for Brexit.

“They say things can only get better’ but things didn’t get better – things got a lot worse. The phrase has never been so apt,” reads the publicity material for Things Fall Apart.

The book is due to be published in May and takes its title from WB Yeats poem’ The Second Coming. It is likely to take in a series of dramas under Blair and Brown, including the invasion of Iraq and the financial crisis as well as scandals surrounding various Cabinet ministers.

O’Farrell is best-known for Things Can Only Get Better, which charted his time as an activist in Wandsworth in south London in the 1980s. It highlighted the sometimes repetitive nature of local Labour meetings but was written with an affection for the party and a burning anger at the injustices of Britain under Margaret Thatcher.

It was just part of his output over a long career spent as a comic writer for radio and television as well as appearing on Have I Got News For You. He also wrote jokes for Gordon Brown.

Since then O’Farrell has stood for parliament twice. In 2001 he contested Maidenhead against Theresa May, coming third, and in 2013 he fought Eastleigh, above, after former cabinet minister Chris Huhne resigned in disgrace, and came fourth.