Michael Chaplin started his career in print and television journalism, working for both ITV and the BBC, but has been a full-time writer since the mid-90s, working extensively in television and radio, creating numerous series, serials and single dramas. He has written more than 10 plays for Live Theatre in Newcastle, all directed by Max Roberts, most recently two pieces co-written in 2009 with his son Tom Chaplin about the on and off-field dramas of their beloved Newcastle United, You Couldn't Make It Up and You Really Couldn't Make It Up. Chris Mullin is an author, journalist and former MP, a minister in three departments and chairman of the Home Affairs select committee. His books include three highly acclaimed volumes of diaries, A View from the Foothills, Decline and Fall and A Walk-On Part; also the novel A Very British Coup, which was made into an award-winning television series

"""Fast paced and very funny... Blending gossip, insight and details of the frustrations of ministerial and backbench life alike... [an] exhilarating adaptation...I cannot recommend it too highly."" 4* Michael Billington - Guardian ""[an] absorbing evening...a bit of a must."" 4* The Telegraph ""Anyone with even a passing interest in how this country has been governed over the past 15 years is advised to walk on in. Mullin's decency and ideological conviction - not to mention a wonderful sense of humour, directed at himself as well as his colleagues - guides our journey safely. It's impossible not to feel politics is the poorer without Mullin."" 4* Evening Standard"