In style at least "Bourneville" is in many ways similar to the Rotter's Club trilogy using key moments in history to anchor the story, albeit this time in a much compressed format; anyone who enjoyed the Trotter books will most probably enjoy "Bourneville". The set up is simple but effective – a single family (based around the eponymous Cadbury’s built workers village), and part German descended is followed across seven nation-defining: VE Day; The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth; The World Cup Final; The Investiture of Charles as Prince of Wales; The Wedding of Charles and Lady Diana; the Funeral of Diana; the 75th Anniversary of VE Day (which takes place in the early days of lockdown – a prologue being set in March 2020 as the virus spreads across Europe in real time). Coe's particular gift is to understand how nostalgia, regret and an apprehension of what the future will bring might make us more, not less, empathetic to the frailties of those around us * FT, Best Audiobooks of the Year * Very tempting * The Times * In this affecting generational saga, framed by the pandemic and structured by seven milestone broadcasts, Jonathan Coe - known for his state-of-the-nation novels - once again takes the temperature of Britain * FT, Best Books of 2022 * At heart Bournville is a novel designed to make you think by making you laugh, and the seriousness of the subject matter is tempered throughout by the author's piercing eye for the more ludicrous elements of human nature * New Statesman * A compelling social history that's sprinkled throughout with Coe's inimitable humour, love and white-hot anger * Evening Standard * A hugely impressive state-of-the-nation tale * Observer * British novelists love to diagnose the state of the nation. I have previously read two of Jonathan Coe’s novels – his 1994 “What A Carve Up” and 2015 part-sequel “Number 11” – both very readable and enjoyable (if rather didactic and over-preaching to the converted) social satires drawing on English farce and (more oddly) spoof horror movies – the first novel in particular also surprisingly formally inventive.

This book also overlaps with the trilogy that began with The Rotter s’ Club and continued with The Closed Circleand the Costa award-winning Middle England. The Rotters' Club was adapted for BBC television in 2005, starring Sarah Lancashire, Alice Eve and Kevin Doyle.Immaginate un luogo nato per ospitare tutti i lavatori di una fabbrica; un piccolo borgo immerso nel verde, nel quale è vietata lavadita di alcolici e bambini sono liberi di scorrazzare per strada!

And the novel has a surprisingly strong ending also with a passage which echoes one from the start and shows the continuity of societal issues – which is a fundamental theme of the novel (and of course proven by the events since the novel was written - the overdue defenestration of Boris, another Royal death and another Royal coronation … and probably another James Bond film but I do not follow movies). As the country struggles to understand the war it has just endured, six more national celebrations follow: coronations and football matches, fairy-tale weddings and royal funerals.And other small details such as Mary playing the piano at her WI every week (surely once a month only) annoyed me.

This is also a novel that makes clear the evolution of Coe’s oeuvre, from the experimental fireworks of his early work, through the quiet, slightly bitter satire of his mid-period titles, to the succession of hugely impressive books that he’s produced since 2016. reworks the plot of an old 1960s spoof horror film of the same name, in the light of the 'carve up' of the UK's resources which some felt was carried out by Margaret Thatcher's right wing Conservative governments of the 1980s. It is an easy read but is not always light – it has its poignant moments, and may just make you shed a tear or two at times. Poetico e realistico, sempre ottima la lettura dei romanzi di Coe che arriva in questo a narrare i mesi del covid19 partendo pero' dalla fine della guerra e passando per i momenti salienti della storia britannica. Bournville is a rich and poignant new novel from the bestselling, Costa award-winning author of Middle England.Instead of the clever wit and irony that leavened his previous State-of-the-Nation novels like The Rotters' Club, Coe's satirical vision here is motivated here by anger and preachiness, and his sociological observations felt obvious and on-the-nose.

It promised me a family story over a number of major events in British history, set in the home of Cadbury. His writing is wonderful, his stories are clever and deep, and his left-wing politics are always spot on. As we travel through 75 years of social change, from James Bond to Princess Diana, and from wartime nostalgia to the Internet, one pressing question starts to emerge: will these changing times bring Mary's family - and their country - closer together, or leave them more adrift and divided than ever before? As we travel through seventy-five years of social change, from James Bond to Princess Diana, and from wartime nostalgia to the World Wide Web, one pressing question starts to emerge: will these changing times bring Mary's family—and their country—closer together, or leave them more adrift and divided than ever before? As we travel through seventy-five years of social change, from James Bond to Princess Diana, and from wartime nostalgia to the World Wide Web, one pressing question starts to emerge: will these changing times bring Mary's family - and their country - closer together, or leave them more adrift and divided than ever before?Should the next novel be in the offing, Coe already has a ready made opening setting with the death and state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. That is the overriding mantra of John Coe’s latest book, which tells a nation’s story through generations of the same family.