"This immersive exploration of Britain through four of generations focuses on key events to create a profound and funny portrait of a nation, with an unforgettable woman at its chocolate-rich heart."
What should it be called, this special place?
Perhaps more than any other contemporary novelist, the work of Jonathan Coe highlights the captivating narratives that can be created when humour is used for serious purposes. I would go as far as to say that this has always been his mission, which means I could have picked almost any of his novels to illustrate the point. I could have picked The Rotters Club perhaps or Middle England (both of which you should definitely read), but in the end, I chose his most recent novel, Bournville. This is not just because it’s set in my home city (Birmingham, which is also Coe’s) but because it is that rarest of beasts – a genuine state of the nation novel that is profound, thoughtful but also eminently readable. All books are ‘readable’ of course, even the bad ones, but very few will give the reader such a rich, multi-layered and laugh-out-loud funny reading experience.
Bournville (the Birmingham suburb built by Cadbury’s) begins as the Covid pandemic is about to sweep through Europe, before we travel back in time to examine key moments in the history of Mary Clarke and her extended family. It’s one that reflects the major turning points in the nation’s history: from the 1966 World Cup final to Brexit; the Queen’s coronation to the death of Princess Diana. It’s a book about what brings us together and what drives us apart. It’s a love letter to the people of this country that doesn’t shy away from telling a few painful home truths. It’s a poignant and powerful novel, more so I would argue, than it would otherwise be, without the humour that runs through it like the filling in a Cadbury’s crème egg.
Tender and wickedly funny, Jonathan Coe’s Bournville takes readers on a sweeping, stirring journey through British history – seventy-five years’ worth of lives bound up in Britain’s social shifts, from VE Day, through to COVID tragedies.
The family at the heart of this deliciously engaging social saga live in picture-perfect, peaceful Bournville, a suburb of Birmingham and home to the famous chocolate factory that’s employed most residents for decades. We first meet Mary as an eleven-year-old in 1945, when she’s swept up in VE Day celebrations, and follow her family through pivotal moments in British history — the coronation; England winning the World Cup in 1966; the investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1969; the 1981 wedding of Charles and Diana; Diana’s funeral in 1997.
More recent moments include Euro-scepticism of the nineties, as revealed through the “chocolate war” with Brussels, with pertinent references to Boris Johnson’s ambition, arrogance, charisma and rule-breaking at that time. Then there’s the outbreak of COVID in 2020 - the lockdowns, the 75th anniversary of VE Day, the agonising loneliness, and devastating loss.
In characteristic style, Coe’s observations are delivered in the authentic voices of his characters, lightly peppered with occasional amusing interjections from the narrator. With its heart-rending ending made all the more poignant by the Author’s Note, Bournville is a cleverly constructed, consummately compelling account of British lives. As Mary’s mother Doll observes near the start of the novel: “Past, present and future: that was what she heard in the sound of the children’s voices from the playground… Everything changes, and everything stays the same”, which cuts to the core of this beautifully-told story.
| Primary Genre | Historical Fiction |
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