Bournville: From the bestselling author of Middle England

Product Information

In 2012 Coe was invited by Javier Marías to become a duke of the kingdom of Redonda. He chose as his title "Duke of Prunes", after a favourite piece of music by Frank Zappa. This is another eminently readable Coe, full of believable characters and fizzing dialogue. And it couldn't be more timely Big Issue Mary grows up in Bournville, and while it is not the only significant locale in the novel -- from unavoidable London to several scenes set in Wales, the novel does more than just visit much of the UK -- it plays a prominent role, reflecting also changing Britain, with the house Mary grew up in in entirely new hands at the novel's end, and the Cadbury factory already becoming more tourist attraction -- with Cadbury World -- than chocolate-producing-center. There is much to enjoy here, as in all Coe's novels . . . an intelligent criticism of our shared history since 1945 Scotsman

Few contemporary writers can make a success of the state of the nation novel: Jonathan Coe is one of them New Statesman Bournville is an enjoyable family saga, centred on the memorable Mary - inspired by Jonathan Coe's own mother - whom we first meet in her little village on VE Day. British author Jonathan Coe, European Book Prize 2019 winner". France24. 9 December 2019 . Retrieved 28 November 2021. John Llewellyn Rhys Prize; Samuel Johnson Prize; Prix Médicis; Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize; Costa Book Award Robin (10 April 2019). "Jonathan Coe wins BAUER award 2019 in Italy". Felicity Bryan Associates . Retrieved 10 April 2023.

This is fine, except Coe clearly hates the monarchy - or at least thinks it's utter nonsense - so all he does is have his characters snark and gripe about it in response...except the insensitive, racist Tory piglets who just love the royals. Oink, oink. Aren't they repulsive! 🙄 E con questo abbiamo pressoché esaurito gli argomenti perché uno dei limiti del romanzo è che in primo piano non accade granché di rilevante e i personaggi senza eccezione appaiono stereotipi del conservatore rampante, dell’artista con tendenze gay, dell’anziano padre incapace di accettare una nuora di colore e così via. Per contro assumono un rilievo considerevole i fatti della famiglia reale, dall’incoronazione di Elisabetta al matrimonio di Carlo al funerale di Diana, vere e proprie cerimonie nazionali che trascinano l’intera popolazione e creano dolorose fratture ed insanabili incomprensioni anche fra tranquilli consanguinei. It is miraculous how, in his new novel, Coe has created a social history of postwar Britain as we are still living it. Bournville is a beautiful, and often very funny, tribute to an underexamined place and also a truly moving story of how a country discovered tolerance' Sathnam Sanghera, bestselling author of Empireland Bournville will be published in France as Le Royaume Désuni (The Disunited Kingdom) because his French editor didn’t think the brand name would have much resonance for readers outside the UK, while the idea of an ununited kingdom is all too recognisable right now. Cadbury’s may be in his DNA, but, he confesses even more quietly than usual: “The chocolate I really like, from a taste point of view, is European.”

What a Carve Up! or The Winshaw Legacy, Viking, 1994 (winner of the 1994 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize) Coe seems to be saying that, on the one hand, tradition has won again. And so it will always be. England doesn’t change. but, on the other, it does change, led by changes in technology, changes in social mores, more acceptance of other races, the EU and, finally, major events like covid. Indeed, he concludes Everything changes, and everything stays the same, which I can more or less agree with. This is certainly a most worthwhile state of the nation book. Publishing history B ournville, we learn from Jonathan Coe’s notes at the end of the novel, is the fourth in a planned quintet he’s writing under the general title of Unrest. 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. All these interweaving plotlines, all the reappearing names, events and, above all, places give the impression of an author whose work is driven by an almost obsessive need to take new perspectives on the past (and its role in shaping the present), to rehearse and re-rehearse foundation myths both personal and national. Bournville έχει φτιαχτεί για να στεγάσει τους εργάτες της Cadbury), με νοσταλγικές και πραγματιστικές νότες παράλληλα, την προσθήκη φυτικού λίπους στις βρετανικές σοκολάτες εν καιρώ πολέμου λόγω ελλείψεων και την μάχη στην Ευρώπη για το αν οι εγγλέζικες σοκολάτες μπορούν να θεωρηθούν «σοκολάτες» ή αν πρέπει να τους αποδοθεί άλλο όνομα (και πώς γράφεται το όνομα "Παπασταθόπουλος"). Μέσα σε αυτό το χαμό, μαθαίνουμε και για την πρώτη αποτυχημένη υποψηφιότητα (καταδικασμένη a priori, στην πραγματικότητα) του Μπόρις, σε έναν παραδοσιακά "εργατικό" δήμο, όπου δε θα είχε καμία τύχη (κι ��μως, το τόλμησε). Εδώ διαφαίνεται ένας θαυμασμός ή έστω μια εκτίμηση του συγγραφέα για τον πολιτικό, που όμως σε άλλα σημεία του βιβλίου αντικαθίσταται από σαρκασμό και την αίσθηση ότι είναι τραγικό ένας τέτοιος χαρακτήρας να είναι υπεύθυνος την εποχή του covid. Φυσικά, υπάρχει μια (μη) αποποίηση ευθύνης του συγγραφέα, όταν δηλώνει για τον Μπόρις ότι «Μπορεί, φυσικά, να φαίνεται οικείος σε ορισμένους αναγνώστες…». Ναι, μας φάνηκε! 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 StatesmanBittersweet as the eponymous bar of plain chocolate, the book ranges over a huge span of time, includes a large cast of characters, yet never flags nor confuses. It manages to squeeze in, among other things, the history of Bournville, European disputes over the labelling over chocolate, Welsh nationalism, the Festival of Britain, the launch of the Austin Metro and tensions over the European Union. As we leaf through the family album, there are touching jolts of recognition. It’s hard not to be stirred by your own memories of the events portrayed and thoughts of your own family. Perhaps the weakest point of the novel is that at times it can feel a little predictable – as in fact can be seen in the choice of epochal events which rather inevitably leads to fairly predictable discussions around UK/EU and German relations (which anyway are even more strongly emphasised by having a German branch to the family), and about the changing attitudes to the monarchy. The book is written very deliberately from a left-of-centre (but still close to centre viewpoint) – the novel riffs frequently on James Bond movies (movies seemingly a pre-occupation of the author given his previous borrowing of spoof-horror film plots) and there is a clear villain in the family who supports the monarchy, conservatism (in its literal and political form) and rather inevitably Brexit. Another character – when challenged as to whether he has ever done anything daring – proudly proclaims that he has joined the nascent SDP and criticism of the lurch to the left of Labour under Foot and then Corbyn is also explicitly expressed by the characters (and implicitly endorsed by the authorial voice). A compelling social history that's sprinkled throughout with Coe's inimitable humour, love and white-hot anger Evening Standard

Honorary Graduates of Birmingham City University". Birmingham City University. Archived from the original on 27 August 2018 . Retrieved 28 January 2015.

Retailers:

T)he loving, funny, clear-sighted and ruminative examination of recent British history (.....) As ever, prizing clarity over verbal fireworks, Coe’s writing draws the reader into the family dramas as they unfold over the decades. He has the great gift of combining plausible and engaging human stories with a deeper structural pattern that gives the book its heft. (...) Bittersweet as the eponymous bar of plain chocolate, the book ranges over a huge span of time, includes a large cast of characters, yet never flags nor confuses. (...) The book also builds a deeper integrity out of echoes and motifs, like a piece of music." - Marcel Theroux, The Guardian The title of the novel refers to the town that candy-manufacturer Cadbury built (the Hershey, Pennsylvania, of the UK ...): Jonathan, Coe (8 November 2018). Middle England. [London]. ISBN 9780241309469. OCLC 1065525001. {{ cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher ( link) 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?