Hello all,

It’s Jane here, introducing the Tuesday newsletter and extending a warm welcome to the hundreds of you who signed up over the weekend – many of you after reading our columnist Stewart Lee interviewed in the Guardian. You can find Stewart’s full Nerve back catalogue here – enjoy!

It’s 1 September, summer is slipping away, the OoOs are being switched off, parliamentary recess is over and tomorrow all eyes will be on Andy Burnham as he squares up for his first PMQs. 

This week also marks the start of the political conference season. First to assemble are Reform, who will descend on Birmingham’s NEC from Thursday. So it's a good moment to introduce today’s main read – an extract from The Real Nigel Farage, the much-anticipated new book, out in 10 days, from veteran investigative journalist John Sweeney, who has worked as a reporter for the Observer and the BBC, is the author of 17 books and is now the Nerve’s Reform correspondent. 

The Real Nigel Farage is a bracing read and spot-on in its aim to put the MP for Clacton on trial. 

John addresses the real possibility, even given the yo-yoing opinion polls, that Farage could one day become prime minister or leader of the opposition. He makes the case for the prosecution, levelling grave charges against Farage for not being a fit and proper candidate to lead the country.

“The people behind this book are those who know Nigel Farage better than anyone else,” John says. “I’m talking about a former lover, Annabelle Sanderson; Neil and Christine Hamilton, who used to be stalwart supporters; his onetime best friend in Ukip, Godfrey Bloom; and other former political allies. All of them say he should never become our prime minister or get anywhere close to serious power because he has a series of catastrophic character flaws … I have written this book as a warning. Please don’t say you have not been warned.” 

As we’ve mentioned before, the Nerve is gearing up to celebrate its first birthday. There is still time to sign up as a founder member and come along to our founders’ anniversary party on 16 September, to raise a toast with us and the contributors. Also, at the end of the month (Sunday 27 September), we are curating a morning of live Nerve journalism as part of the new Vision Festival in King’s Cross. More details in Friday’s newsletter plus a link to buy tickets with a special member deal. 

“The traditional framework of a politician’s biography fails to capture Farage’s quicksilver,” writes our Reform correspondent, John Sweeney, in an exclusive preview of his explosive new book. Rather, he says, we are dealing with a kind of “dark genius” – “a political leader who acts without suffering the consequences of his actions”. All the people John has talked to in his in-depth investigation paint a similar picture – a man who leaves an impression of “charisma, cruelty and chaos”. Read the extract here.

Two trailblazing auteurs have films just out on the big screen, both thoroughly recommended by members of the Nerve team. There’s my favourite, Pedro Almodóvar’s multilayered and compelling Bitter Christmas. Or perhaps you fancy Gregg Araki’s “raunchy, riotous, rainbow-hued” new film I Want Your Sex, starring Cooper Elliot and Olivia Wilde, and hotly tipped by Nerve film critic Ellen E Jones. Staying in? We’ve got you covered with music, TV and podcast suggestions from the rest of the team (and some booking-now tips for when you fancy venturing out again). Read this week’s hotlist here.

It is returns-only to see Stewart Lee performing his dark and grisly version of Edward Lear’s Pea Green Boat at Wilton’s Music Hall in London next month, but tickets are still available for Omar El Akkad, author of One Day, Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This in conversation with Ramita Navai in Bristol; Cory Doctorow in conversation with Nerve co-founder Carole Cadwalladr next week in Brighton; and ex-BBC HARDTalk presenter Stephen Sackur at London’s Conduit Club. For details of all our events click here.

That’s all for today – thanks for reading! We’ll be back with our usual bumper weekend edition on Friday, featuring Stewart’s column, a Meera Syal interview, a Weekend Dish from Yotam Ottolenghi and more. See you then.

Jane