Middle England

By: Jonathan Coe

Narrated by: Rory Kinnear

Brought to you by Penguin.

Costa Best Novel Award 2019 Winner.

It was tempting to think, at times like this, that some bizarre hysteria had gripped the British people.
Beginning eight years ago on the outskirts of Birmingham, where car factories have been replaced by Poundland, and London, where frenzied riots give way to Olympic fever, Middle England follows a brilliantly vivid cast of characters through a time of immense change.

There are newlyweds Ian and Sophie, who disagree about the future of the country and, possibly, the future of their relationship; Doug, the political commentator who writes impassioned columns about austerity from his Chelsea townhouse, and his radical teenage daughter who will stop at nothing in her quest for social justice; Benjamin Trotter, who embarks on an apparently doomed new career in middle age, and his father, Colin, whose last wish is to vote in the European referendum. And within all these lives is the story of modern England: a story of nostalgia and delusion, of bewilderment and barely suppressed rage.

Middle England is read by Rory Kinnear.

Following in the footsteps of The Rotters' Club and The Closed Circle, Jonathan Coe's new novel is the novel for our strange new times.

©2018 Jonathan Coe (P)2018 Penguin Books Ltd

Critic reviews

"Coe is among the handful of novelists who can tell us something about the temper of our times." (The Observer)

"Probably the best English novelist of his generation." (Nick Hornby)

"You can't stop reading....I was haunted for days." (The Independent on Number 11)

Their own personal Brexit

I thoroughly enjoyed how Coe intertwined private an public events into a genuinely relatable set of characters. Set against a backdrop of handful charicature characters (Coriander, Helena) and events (the murder of Jo Cox, the 2011 riots) and their sheer mindless brutality, the lives of Benjamin and friends stand out as a more subtle take on Brexit and its impact on their private world. I loved Coe's sympathetic portrayal of an ageing man who looks back at his life and still sees a future amidst uncertainty. The whole story seems to revolve around uncertainty and ambiguity (political, sentimental) and I think this is where its honesty and its strength lie.