Bournville: From the bestselling author of Middle England

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Sitting in a sunny carriage, the only one with a mask on, I reflected on how far we had come since those days of 2020. The political backdrop has also thrown up extraordinary events already, in the UK, with Johnson and Truss demonstrating how fertile this ground continues to be. Parts of the chocolate factory will be transformed into a theme park, and Bournville itself will gradually disappear into the sprawl of the growing city of Birmingham.

That is the overriding mantra of John Coe’s latest book, which tells a nation’s story through generations of the same family. If you enjoy sweeping family sagas, populated by wonderful characters, balanced narratives with stellar endings, then like me, you will love this novel. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

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. Bournville is a rich and poignant new novel from the bestselling, Costa award-winning author of Middle England. 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.

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. He is the recipient of many prizes and awards, including both Costa Novel of the Year and Prix du Livre Européen.We visit the Bournville family – now dispersed across the country – as they react to the death of Diana and then in May 2020, deep in the Covid crisis, with Mary self-isolating and her children and grandchildren (including Lorna) worrying about her. This book has an interesting and ‘novel’ structure, excuse the pun: it is the story of one woman’s life, and that of her family, told in the context of seven memorable occasions in their lives and the life of the nation – the UK that is. Don't get me wrong: these are important topics, and there are many thought-provoking and interesting things that could be said about them/ways they could be included in a novel, but here they felt almost ancillary to the story the author was trying to tell and like they had been shoehorned in. As Mary grows older, the focus moves to her children – Jack, Martin and Peter and later to her granddaughter Lorna.

During the next three-quarters of a century, Mary will have children and grandchildren and great-children. Although the four generations start with Doll, it's her daughter Mary who is the hub of the story, and her children and grandchildren who experience alongside her some of the most memorable times in recent history. The Rotters' Club was adapted for BBC television in 2005, starring Sarah Lancashire, Alice Eve and Kevin Doyle.They make absolutely no difference to the plot and seem to be nothing but background noise (in most cases). One of the better choices in the book is to have one candidate as a lobbyist for Cadbury in the long-running Chocolate Wars as some other European countries refuse for years to allow English chocolate (with its fat content) to be sold as chocolate – the character’s wife ultimately becoming an MEP based on the strong working knowledge of Brussels they gain. It promised me a family story over a number of major events in British history, set in the home of Cadbury. The Rotter’s Club and Number 11 create a wincingly-accurate portrait of Britain through the seventies and beyond, complete with all its petty class warfare and the agonising blunders of adolescence and middle age. Set in Coe's nativeMidlands and told through thelives of four generations of onefamily, beginning with 11-year-oldMary in 1945, Bournville is apoignant, clever and witty portraitof social change and how theBritish see themselves.

Like the Trotter books there are though a lot of characters across and around the generations of the Lamb family before you get to the bit-players, the latter include Colin and Paul Trotter who put in appearances as distant family members as does David Foley from Coe's "Expo 58"; the sheer number of cast members does make it occasionally tough going as you play the who are they, where have they appeared before game. The treatment of Boris is I felt nuanced – in both Brussels and Wales there is a sneaking admiration for his ability to get people onside through not acting seriously.Cadburys supported my own education and allowed my father to take time off for his political activity, they continued to be fantastic employers, not just when they started out at Bournville. Predictably, the family must confront interracial marriage and the coming out of a key family member. Amid the celebrations, there is a dark moment when Carl, an elderly German man who has lived in England for decades, is struck by a thug. It is miraculous how, in his new novel, Coe has created a social history of postwar Britain as we are still living it. The book makes much also of the assertion - not I think entirely correct - that in 1997 both versions of God Save The Queen (the official and the Sex Pistols one) were simultaneously on the nation’s lips.