Bournville: From the bestselling author of Middle England

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For me a closer comparison would be to Francis Spufford’s Booker longlisted/RSL Encore Prize winning “Light Perpetual” although without the oddly redundant meta-fictional conceit, the welcome exploration of faith and the almost transcendent ending (although see below).

A tender portrayal of the state of the nation through the prism of family relationships Woman & Home Perhaps the least predictable choice of event (in fact only unpredictable one) was Charles’s investiture and this did lead to some of the more interesting scenes – a childhood realisation of English-Welsh tensions and even a little twist relating to undercover attempts to dissuade Welsh nationalist activists from direct action. Wet in the southwest side of Birmingham, Bourneville was designed to house chocolate factory workers. It focuses foremost on Mary, who is a child during VE day, and overwhelmed by the patriotism and the joyousness of triumphing over the Germans. 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! Coe does his ending well enough, but much of it does feel more strained than the easier-flowing other parts of the novel.

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Parts of “Bournville” feel episodic, and the cast is so large that not every character can make an impression. However, these flaws are outweighed by the book’s many delights, particularly its involving storylines, comic set pieces and astute analysis. “What kind of a country,” wonders Peter during a time of national unrest and “royalist pomp and circumstance”, “could allow these two worlds to exist side by side?”

There are other problems, like too many similar characters, but the ones I've listed above are the main ones. There's nothing new to be learned or experienced in Bournville because the early chapters are far too on-the-nose with historic events we all already know about, the middle is dull and non-eventful and the beginning/end bookends are far too personal. Bournville is a rich and poignant new novel from the bestselling, Costa award-winning author of Middle England. It is the story of a woman, of a nation's love affair with chocolate, of Britain itself.Told with compassion, steadiness, decency and always a glint in the eye, this is a novel that both challenges and delights. For anyone who has felt lost in the past six years, it is like meeting an ally -- Rachel Joyce, author of Miss Benson's Beetle Someone in a previous GR review of this book (Kay Dunham) described the style as similar to that of the Famous Five, this is exactly it. It does try your patience, though, to be treated like that as a reader: everything being spelled out for you, it makes you feel stupid at times. Then an 11-year-old growing up in the literal shadow of the Cadbury's factory, and the metaphorical shadow of WW2, we follow Mary as she grows up, finds love and work and has a relatively normal British life. A life full of dreams connections, happiness, the odd regret.

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 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 *Covid και του Brexit, περνώντας από την ενθρόνιση της Ελισσάβετ, το Μουντιάλ της Αγγλίας του 1966, το χρίσμα του Καρόλου ως πρίγκιπα της Ουαλίας (κάποιοι διαμαρτυρήθηκαν ότι ο πρίγκιπας της Ουαλίας θα έπρεπε να είναι Ουαλός), ο γάμος Καρόλου-Νταίάνας, το θάνατο της πριγκίπισσας Νταιϊάνα και "τη μάχη της σοκολάτας" στο ευρωκοινοβούλιο και με αρκετό τρυφερό σαρκασμό για τον Μπόρις Τζόνσον. Full of vibrant characters and fabulous dialogue, which switches from laugh-out-loud funny to extremely poignant Independent Like a Fiery Elephant: The Story of B. S. Johnson, London: Picador, 2004 (winner of the 2005 Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction)

This novel is intended to stand alone, but is also part of a loosely connected series of books I've been writing for some years under the general title of Unrest. Unlike most such family sagas, Coe's seven-occasion timeline means that the novel often doesn't cover what are generally significant events in the lives of the characters: from one section to the next, for example, we find family members married or now with kids, while the actual weddings and births happen off-screen. There are a few good chapters, especially those talking about Cadbury's, but I was dismayed to read in the author notes that the death of Mary Lamb in the novel was an accurate account of the passing of Coe's own mother during the Covid pandemic.In terms of writing, he thinks “cosy crime is the way to go”. Surprisingly, given its high-profile adopters, such as Richard Osman and Reverend Richard Coles, who are making a tidy killing from this most English of genres, Coe discovered it in a bookshop in France, where a whole shelf was labelled “cosy crime”. “It’s another of those British cultural phenomena which people don’t realise is so popular in other countries.” It seems the perfect match for Coe’s nostalgic Englishness and neat storytelling. There is an awful lot to fit in. Political upheaval and awkward class dynamics are set against Britain's obsessive relationship with the royal family and shifting attitudes towards multiculturalism and gay rights. But underpinning it all is the uneasy (often unspoken) debate raging over what it means to be British -- or, perhaps more accurately, English." - Rachel Cunliffe, New Statesman Bournville is Jonathan Coe's most ambitious novel yet . . . a novel about people and place. Entertaining and often poignant, it presents a captivating portrait of how Britons lived then and the way they live now * Economist *