Bournville: From the author of Middle England

I'd read a couple of books by this author and enjoyed his observational style so bought this one when it came out in paperback. I love the idea of looking at 70 years of history with one location at it's centre.The book was first published in 2022 and the shadow of Covid haunts the later section of the book. Many novels seem to be considering the pandemic at the moment. As a reader it can be quite upsetting and I found that the first few novels I read were very unsettling - as I've read more though, the differing perspectives are starting to have more of a cathartic effect.There are 351 pages, split into 7 parts each set at a time of a national event - the parts are then divided into chapters with each part being structured in a different way.From the start this writing is beautiful and that is kept up all the way through - it has a rhythm that makes this a rewarding reading experience. There are some wonderful phrases that made me pause and read them again - e.g.. "Everything changes and everything stays the same" perfectly summarising a state of the nation novel.He uses evocative descriptions - "satisfyingly high pile of biscuits" and "making remorseless progress through the biscuits" are just two examples.The premise shows the progress of a nation around events that brought people together. We see the crowds and the excitement but also see the alternative view of discontentment and anarchy. Jonathan Coe never lets us forget the undercurrent of unease as a balance to the wave of sometimes irrational patriotism that threatens to overwhelm normal emotions.Most of the parts are written in the third person so when the first person it used that section becomes very personal and the major event scales down to something happening to just one person.The time gaps between the parts are fascinating - life has moved on, new people are around, some have died and irritations have become problems. The first few paragraphs of each part allowed the reader to catch up with the characters and, by extension, look at the changes in the outside world as they effect the individuals.In each period there are many references to contemporary innovations and it is deeply nostalgic to think about the early TV sets and the first home computers among lots of other examples.I can imagine that the book was written in lockdown as the section covering this period is very realistic and brings back many of the emotions experienced during this time.Being based around a family this feels to be a small book but it's surroundings are vast and we can see how much many families are continually influenced by the outside world.I was unsure how the book would end and it turned out to be perfect. The last few chapters actually took my breathe away and made me think hard about the impact we make on the world. This book will stay in my head for a long time

At first I thought the language and the characters we’re a bit simplistic, but then I got drawn into the stories and the history of the politics described in the ordinariness of peoples everyday lives. I especially enjoyed the description of the European market versus Cadbury chocolate, lots of humour in this book. An interesting and enjoyable read if you don’t require an intellectual stretch of the mind.

I’m afraid I was very disappointed by this book (especially as I had chosen it for my book group), being in the camp of those who found it an unimaginative and over-detailed chronicle of the last 75 years, in which I could detect none of the promised humour.One of the main problems lies in the fact that the central characters are very ordinary people, largely lacking in ambition, and almost completely lacking in any insight! We hear tell of what a wonderful teacher Mary was, but the author fails to convey this through her inner thoughts or her actions, instead using her dangerous driving to give her character a certain (unconvincing) rebelliousness. She is, of course, hampered by being shackled to Geoffrey, but herein lies the main problem. Conventional people living conventional lives just doesn’t make for good literature!As a reader I don’t want my own boring life and background reflected back at me. I want to be given insights into more interesting and exciting worlds. As for a ball by ball account of the 1966 World Cup Final…

Bournville examines the state of the nation via a series of major events in these islands' recent history. They are filtered through the lens of a single family who live in the eponymous Birmingham suburb.As the novel starts, we meet Sam, Doll and their daughter Mary on VE Day. Sam has the day off work for the celebrations, but poor Mary still has to endure a piano lesson before they all go to the bonfire at Rowheath. We revisit the family on various other occasions, such as the 1966 world cup, the wedding of Charles and Diana the strange collective grief of Diana's funeral, finally finishing with the 75th anniversary of VE Day.It's an enjoyable read, although I did lose track of some of the characters at times. Mary's three sons in particular were mostly indistinguishable - a family tree might have aided my understanding of the different generations. And the important events the novel is structured around have a heavy bias towards the royal family, although gratifyingly not all the characters are flag-waving royalists. There's a lovely section about a family holiday in Llanbedr in 1969 that chimes perfectly with tales my husband has told me of his family caravan holidays in the area.The final chapters are set during the recent Covid pandemic. Unlike the rest of the novel, one is written in the first person, presented as a piece written by Peter, one of Mary's sons. In the author's note at the end of the book, Jonathan Coe explains that not only is Mary loosely based on his own mother, but this piece is "a faithful account of the death of my own mother in the early hours of 10th June 2020". It's a beautifully affecting piece, even if it doesn't quite fit seamlessly into the rest of the book. No wonder he took the opportunity to introduce a not-so fictional journalist with a mop of blond hair who is "always on the go, never still for a moment, always in a hurry, always in a mess, always late, always under-prepared, always over-committed, always in demand and always out of reach" that he can skewer at every available opportunity.All in all it's a highly enjoyable, frequently nostalgic read.

This is a good outline of a story that also encapsulates true facts. Some surprises in the storyline.

Very interesting for anyone interested in the history of Cadbury

I thoroughly enjoyed Bournville - particularly the bits about the pretty incompetent blond Etonian journalist!

Thoroughly enjoyable and full of (for me) recent social hitory. Personally, I found the Covid references a bit too recent but only from the perspective that it is something I would sooner forget for the time being and move on

Lecture personnelle

Poetico e realistico, sempre ottima la lettura dei romanzi di Coe che arriva in questo a narrare i mesi del covid19 partendo pero' dalla fine della guerra e passando per i momenti salienti della storia britannica. Molto bello!