Film Review was presented by other presenters although he continued to present Dateline London. He returned on 31 March 2017 to present his final BBC News at Five and Film Review. He returned to the BBC later that year as host of Talking Books. Since 2021, Esler has been a regular presenter and contributor to the political podcast The Bunker. Literary career Esler is the author of five novels and four non-fiction books. The novel A Scandalous Man was described by fellow author Bernard Cornwell as "a compelling book, its political sophistication made luminous with wisdom, sympathy and story telling". His fifth novel, Powerplay, was published by HarperCollins in August 2009. Esler's first non-fiction book, The United States of Anger published in October 1997 by Penguin, explores America's discontent with itself and was described by the New Statesman as "a vivid portrait of America in the 1990s". Esler's 2019 book Brexit Without the Bullshit discusses some of the potential consequences of the UK's withdrawal from the European Union. For several years he also wrote regular columns for The Scotsman, The Independent and other publications.. Esler's most recent book, How Britain Ends - English Nationalism and the Re-birth of Four Nations, was published in February 2021 and in which Esler claims a resurgent English nationalism is pulling the United Kingdom apart. Political career In August 2018, Esler spoke at a People's Vote rally in Edinburgh. People's Vote is a campaign group calling for a public vote on the final Brexit deal between the UK and the European Union. On 23 April 2019, he was announced as a candidate for Change UK in London in the May 2019 European Parliament election. The party announced its intention to stop Brexit and pursue a second referendum on membership of the EU. It gained 3.4% of the vote nationally and failed to win any seats. In London the party achieved 5.3% of the vote, but this was only just over half of the number required for Esler as lead candidate to win the 8th and last seat under the d'Hondt system of proportional representation used in the election. In an interview with the Huffington Post, published on 6 May 2019, Esler stated that, "I want to stop Brexit. Fix Britain. And then I want to reform the things that are wrong with the EU". He added, that he thought Nigel Farage was "affable" and a