Former Conservative MP and TV personality Michael Portillo will visit Cumbria later this month.

The live appearance at the Carnegie Theatre, in Workington, on Tuesday, January 22 will also be followed by a book signing.

It took Michael Portillo - known for his colourful dress sense - little more than 10 years to get a seat in the Commons and then rise in power and esteem to a point where he was a favoured leader of his party and possible future Prime Minister.

Although his political career then came to a humiliating end, losing his Enfield South seat in the general election in May 1997.
Great Railway Journeys is so popular that Bradshaw’s Guide, a book intended for use by travellers in the 1860’s, made the bestseller list over 150 years after it was first published.

Michael has since reinvented himself to many with his obvious respect for the solid workmanship found in the great railways of the world, the effect of the railways on the history of countries and the daily lives of their people.

He grabbed his trusty Bradshaw's Guide and took to the railways of the world.

Earlier this year, he ventured across the pond for a third series of Great American Railroad Journeys, ticking Canada, New England and California off the list.

Portillo has also written a regular column for The Sunday Times, and is a long-serving member of the panel in the BBC Radio 4 series The Moral Maze.

In Workington, he will tell his story, with a “parliamentary stand-up” wit, and then take questions about it.

Tickets, priced at £18.50, are available from the venue's box office. A restoration levy is included in the ticket price.