“Bournville” by Jonathan Coe

An audio book.

In the Prologue (2020) Lorna (wife of Donny) arrives in Vienna with her double bass at the start of her first jazz tour with Mark. She Skypes her Gran (86; she has a heart condition that could kill her at any moment) who’s had a tablet for 6 years and who’s been a widow for 7. Covid’s starting. Not all the concerts go ahead. She wonders if she might research into a German relative.

Mary grew up in Bournville, a Quaker-influenced pub-free suburb of Birmingham built to house workers at a chocolate factory. We're taken through her life. We’re shown various episodes where the family was gathered around the radio or TV - first VE Day (when a German is attacked), then later the 1966 world, Charles and Diana’s wedding, etc. We’re shown how attitudes to foreigners (especially Germans) change. Mary’s husband - a Classist turned bank manager isn’t happy when son Martin plans to marry a non-white Scot, Bridget. Mary teaches sport at a primary school and does golf and tennis after retirement. Mary and Geoffrey’s sons are Peter, Martin and Jack. When she sees Ken on TV as a political pundit she mentions that they were friends before she married.

James Bond films and people's opinion of them are used assess the UK. And so is chocolate - when the EC challenge whether Cadbury's sweets have too much vegetable oil to be called "chocolate", Martin goes over to negociate. The French are called pretentious while the British think about their childhood and the war (the cause for the addition of vegetable oil). Martin thinks about becoming an MEP. Bridget gets a European job instead.

In childhood David and Peter went on a holiday in Wales, which prepares us for the (unlikely) meeting over 30 years later of David with the Welsh girl. They sleep together. David finds out that his father used to be in MI5.

After a few years of having a wife, Peter, a classical musician, comes out to Mary as gay.

There are echoes down the centuries - Boris Johnson's speech is like Churchill's.

Because of her heart condition she wasn't allowed to drive. She hates the loss of freedom. At 86, during covid, she drives, does 50 on a 30mph road, and feels alive again. She visits her old house. During covid she dies alone. Bridget rants at the family saying that none of them stuck up for her against Geoffrey and Jack though she did her best to be part of the family.

Later, there's an unfamiliar noise - the bell of the local school. Covid's over. Life begins again.

Episodic, with characters (sometimes unexpectedly) appearing in more than one episode. Interlinked stories? Not really. Cosy historical fiction for those who recall the 60s, who remember when TV programs didn't start until the afternoon, who had a Sony Discman? Partly, though the interlacing of Lady Di's televised funeral with gay sex doesn't fit in with that description. And later, the Covid Regulations are interlaced with narrative. Some sections seem very long for what they do. The covid section might be more interesting on a few years time - the details are wasted on me.

Other reviews

• Alex Preston (It’s difficult (but not impossible) to draw a line between the complex energy of Coe’s early work and these gentler, more sedate later novels)
• Marcel Theroux (prizing clarity over verbal fireworks, Coe’s writing draws the reader into the family dramas as they unfold over the decades. He has the great gift of combining plausible and engaging human stories with a deeper structural pattern that gives the book its heft. ... Subtle, considered, but not programmatic, Coe doesn’t stick to any consistent aesthetic principle. He uses omniscient narration for some sections, first-person narration for others. There are bits in the past tense, bits in the present tense, chunks of news reports, extracts from a diary, a long reminiscence by a recurring character from one of his other novels. None of this sophistication makes the book less pleasurable – quite the reverse. It combines a welcoming accessibility with a box of clever narrative tricks.)