Bournville: From the bestselling author of Middle England

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It is also a potted history of Cadbury’s, the English chocolate maker so loved by the Brits and, now that it is owned by an enormous American company that has ruined it in some ways, is also known throughout the world owing to the new owners’ excellent marketing abilities. The title is Bournville because Bournville is the suburb of Birmingham where the Cadbury factory was built, and which provided employment for generations of Bournville residents. In fact, the village was built by Cadbury’s for its employees. Read the book to get all the details. As the nation changes and the racial makeup of the family alters, it’s not so much that bigotry gives way to tolerance, but that the ambiguities deepen. All along, we are reminded of the contradictory facets of the nation and of each individual character: the snobbishness that coexists with kindness, humour and narrow-mindedness, rationality and unexamined prejudices. And the novel has a surprisingly strong ending also with a passage which echoes one from the start and shows the continuity of societal issues – which is a fundamental theme of the novel (and of course proven by the events since the novel was written - the overdue defenestration of Boris, another Royal death and another Royal coronation … and probably another James Bond film but I do not follow movies).

There are a few running themes in this book, in addition to the family one.There are seven key events, which are the individual chapters, in that what happens in the chapters happens around these events. Four of them directly concern the British royal family and while the other three do not, the royal family plays a minor role in each one. Perhaps Coe should have waited for the key royal family event of this century – the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the accession to the throne of her son King Charles III. 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. When Mary and Geoffrey get engaged, Geoffrey still feels some anxiety, knowing: "he would never quite feel sure of her until the vows were spoken and the wedding ring was on her finger", and she does, in fact, have another suitor; this possibility of how everything could have been different in just slightly different circumstances also hangs nicely over the novel. 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. 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.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. 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?” Brexit (για το οποίο είναι σαφές ότι οι Βρετανοί δεν έχουν ακόμα συλλογικά κατασταλαγμένη άποψη), ενώ ένας άλλος, πολύ χαριτωμένα ερωτώμενος αν έχει κάνει ποτέ του κάτι τολμηρό αναφέρει την ένταξή του στο SDP (μετριοπαθέστερο των εργατικών της εποχής κόμμα). Βέβαια, η επιλογή των χρονικών στιγμών που "τραβάει φωτογραφίες" ο Coe, δίνει μάλλον προβλέψιμες συζητήσεις (και τους εξίσου δεδομένα προβλέψιμους προβληματισμούς που τις δημιουργούν), αλλά ίσως είναι και «δίχτυ ασφαλείας» στη γραφή του. Ωστόσο, μια από τις στιγμές που αποκαλύπτεται a posteriori με τους Ουαλλούς εθνικιστές-ακτιβιστές-επαναστάτες και την αποτρεπτική δράση ενός μέλους της οικογένειας, ξεφεύγει από το μοτίβο της προβλεψιμότητας. E con questo abbiamo pressoché esaurito gli argomenti perché uno dei limiti del romanzo è che in primo piano non accade granché di rilevante e i personaggi senza eccezione appaiono stereotipi del conservatore rampante, dell’artista con tendenze gay, dell’anziano padre incapace di accettare una nuora di colore e così via. Per contro assumono un rilievo considerevole i fatti della famiglia reale, dall’incoronazione di Elisabetta al matrimonio di Carlo al funerale di Diana, vere e proprie cerimonie nazionali che trascinano l’intera popolazione e creano dolorose fratture ed insanabili incomprensioni anche fra tranquilli consanguinei.

The title of the novel refers to the town that candy-manufacturer Cadbury built (the Hershey, Pennsylvania, of the UK ...): With it's overlap with these novels, as well as others by Coe, Bournville is another piece of the large tapestry presenting modern Britain that Coe's work can be seen as, and certainly a solid and entertaining one.

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Few contemporary writers can make a success of the state of the nation novel: Jonathan Coe is one of them New Statesman 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 όμως, 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, ότα�� δηλώνει για τον Μπόρις ότι «Μπορεί, φυσικά, να φαίνεται οικείος σε ορισμένους αναγνώστες…». Ναι, μας φάνηκε! The other nationality that plays a role is the Welsh. The families visit Wales for a holiday and two of the cousins – Peter Lamb and David Foley – become friendly with Sioned, daughter of the owner of the farm where they are staying. That too ends badly when Sioned shows her bitterness (and that of her family) regarding the English treatment of the Welsh including the Investiture of the Prince of Wales and flooding Welsh villages for a reservoir for water for England. Welsh nationalism will appear again.

There is much to enjoy here, as in all Coe's novels . . . an intelligent criticism of our shared history since 1945 Scotsman Mr Coe’s characters observe social change, technological developments, cultural shifts and political turmoil. Some find themselves embroiled in Britain’s “Chocolate War” with the European Union, others have their plans derailed by covid-19 restrictions. Mr Coe skilfully traces fault lines that divide the country while depicting family rifts, and he offsets TV commentaries of royal events—weddings, funerals and the queen’s “ponderous, arcane” coronation—with his characters’ thoughts and opinions. You get the feeling Coe even disliked Princess Diana, given the sex scene he places during Tony Blair's speech at her funeral. The sex scene itself is great...but the timing is utterly disturbing. Repugnant, too, when you think how many thousands of people were genuinely hurting that day. Talk about deliberately pissing on a national memory! When I lived in Brunei (Borneo), I was surprised to find just as enormous a display of Cadbury’s chocolate in SupaSave as I did in Tesco in England. Chocolate is another motif that reappears throughout the novel. At a meeting between the German and English branches of the family, an argument develops about whether British or German chocolate is better. As Mary and Geoffrey’s children grow – we revisit the family for the investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1969, then for Charles and Diana’s wedding in 1981 – the story of Britain’s “chocolate war” with the EU plays out. Martin rises within the corporate structure of Cadbury’s, finally going to Brussels to represent the interests of British chocolate. During this period he crosses paths with Paul Trotter (from The Closed Circle) and also with a bumbling, mendacious journalist called Boris.

British novelists love to diagnose the state of the nation. Few do it better than Jonathan Coe, who writes with warmth and subversive glee about social change and the comforting mundanities it imperils Spectator This is another eminently readable Coe, full of believable characters and fizzing dialogue. And it couldn't be more timely Big Issue 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.

It is miraculous how, in his new novel, Coe has created a social history of postwar Britain as we are still living it. Bournville is a beautiful, and often very funny, tribute to an underexamined place and also a truly moving story of how a country discovered tolerance' Sathnam Sanghera, bestselling author of Empireland 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 Few contemporary writers can make a success of the state of the nation novel: Jonathan Coe is one of them * New Statesman * Bournville is a decades-trotting trigenerational saga, and there is satisfaction inherent in following one group of characters over seventy-five years. The plotting is thoughtful and well executed. Coe’s narrative style is best described as pragmatic. (...) Coe has answered the question he set himself. He has ruled his margins with care and kept his handwriting tidy. But the resulting homework feels a bit too much like … well, homework." - Claire Lowdon, Times Literary Supplement

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This is another eminently readable Coe, full of believable characters and fizzing dialogue. And it couldn't be more timely * Big Issue *