TORY MP Nadine Dorries has revealed the impact of dyslexia on her speech, but revealed she takes solace in her writing because the culture secretary is also a novelist - with some of her words too risqué to reprint.
What’s happened?
Ms Dorries, 64, was seen in a viral TikTok video talking about being able to "downstream" - instead of download - films online, and also called tennis courts "pitches". She responded that it was tough seeing commentators "mock me for something that is beyond my control. I have dyslexia, which means that when I speak, I often run my words together.”
Dyslexia doesn’t affect her writing?
In her tweet, she added: "Dyslexia affects people differently. For me, it affects my speech more than my writing, which is why I find solace in my writing."
She is a novelist?
The Liverpool-born politician, who has served as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport since 2021, has been an MP for Mid-Bedfordshire since 2005. In 2013, it was announced she had signed a three-book deal for a six-figure advance, with her first book published the following year - The Four Streets.
Do her books sell well?
Described as a "heartbreaking family saga set in 1950s Liverpool", her debut sold more than 100,000 ebooks, making it number one in that category at the time. The Register of Members' financial interests at Westminster shows that she has received more than £125,000 for her efforts.
What are her other books?
Titles include The Velvet Ribbon, Snow Angels and Christmas Angels.
Reviews?
The New Statesmen savagely stated of The Four Streets that Dorries was "just not very good at making things up". The Telegraph branded it a “misery novel” told “in vacuous language”.
Language such as…?
Chunks of it would not be palatable over your cereal, but if you want to know more, there is a Twitter page, Daily Dorries - with thousands of followers - offering extracts. Tamer examples include - from her 2015 offering Ruby Flynn - “Usually he forgot a girl's name before her French knickers returned to full mast."
Goodness!
Mild content includes this from last year's Coming Home To The Four Streets, taken from Daily Dorries: "Her red lipstick had bled into the cracks in her skin that ran away from her top lip and Paddy was transfixed by the faint orange line on her neck where her foundation ended and the white skin on her neck began, for it resembled a noose.”
She is not the only Cabinet member to put pen to paper?
Although Prime Minister Boris Johnson has written a number of non-fiction books, his novel ”Seventy-two Virgins - A Comedy of Errors" was published in 2004 when he was shadow arts minister and editor of the Spectator. Described as a "hectic comedy thriller”, it tells the tale of a "hapless, bicycle-riding, tousled-haired MP" who aims to foil an attack on the US President.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here