Jonathan Coe Books In Order

Publication Order of Rotters' Club Books

Publication Order of The Winshaw Legacy Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Save the Story Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Jonathan Coe is a fiction contemporary British Novelist and author born in Birmingham, the UK. Most of his work revolves around political issues though expressed in satire.

He went to King Edward’s School and Trinity College in Cambridge. Coe later went to the University of Warwick and got a Ph.D. in English Literature. He received an honorary degree from The University of Birmingham in July 2006.

The author has won numerous prizes both at home and abroad. His novels have been adapted into films.

The Rotter’s Club
The Rotter’s Club is the debut in the series going by the same name. The novel is set in Birmingham in the 1970s, where the race and social status fights are are clearing the way for the Thatcher era and union strikes. A group of teenagers is going through normal trials and tribulations of the same age group. One is Benjamin, an erstwhile dreamer, then Doug, the wannabe journalist, and lastly, Philip, another big dreamer.

In 1973, there were industrial strikes, social status warfare, adolescent distress, and IRA bombings in England. There are friends, one is a class clown who laughs at the slightest thing, the second a artist in love with guitar rock. The third one is a humorless revolutionary with socialist leanings and a dreamer obsessed with the most beautiful girl in his school, God and poetry.

All fall in and out of love and have misadventures while going through strange situations. There’s worker racism, and the author lets the readers focus on the group’s parents. In Britain, it’s a time where people suffered and yet a time where the younger generation knew how to be free and fight against the societal chains.

Ben’s friends Philip, Chase, and Dougie Anderton go to the same school and get involved with the music scene, often quoting New Musical Express, school magazine fights about how life molds them. Ben and Paul appear to understand the resonance that the ordinary people felt after being evacuated from Sweden and Holland.

The boys went to the fictitious King William’s grammar school in Edgbaston after passing their 11+ and became full members of the Rotter’s Club. The son of a junior manager and another son of a union representative were both attending the same school. Might this be proof that the class war was finally dying?
The frightening effect of the IRA bomb on Lois after she lost the love of her life, Malcolm, at a young age and the impact of her illness had on Ben, a teenager, as he visited her in hospital after Malcolm had passed away is so intense.

At the story’s core is a mystery revolving around the disappearance of one of the characters. The mystery is engaging enough to keep you engaged to the last page.

There seemed to be any financial problem; none of the boys had part-time jobs. The story is an exciting way of learning about history and national issues that affect local issues.

It’s an entertaining book with numerous funny and humorous moments you would forget after reading it. It’s so interesting to see how things happened in 1973. Jonathan Coe celebrated ordinary, comfortable, and middle England family life for what it really was. The whole generation is moving from working-class backgrounds to more middle-class advantages.

The Rotter’s Club is a fantastic tale of growing up in 1970s Britain witnessing the strikes, bombings, and the joy and challenges faced but the Trotter family. It’s a trip in a nostalgia lane and a look at adolescence, friendship, and being raised in the heart of midlands, England.
The story is written from the vantage point of a new millennium. Its strength lies in the comic humanity. Jonathan Coe gives a menacingly authentic and engaging look at compromise and change in a decade most people don’t know about.

The novel is gripping, funny, heartbreaking, and terrifying. The author combines sharp and savage social commentary with full pleasures and a classic feel. For fans of contemporary literature, The Rotter’s Club is your perfect book.
What a Carve Up

What a Carve Up is the debut in The Winshaw Legacy series. Jonathan personifies the critiques of poor healthcare, war profiteering, banking deregulation, and cheapening of the culture in the form of the wealthy Winshaw family.

The Winshaw family is a wealthy and influential family who manage to carve up and influence British life.
He has chronicled the family’s biographer, Michael Owen, who’s an ordinary man, and his life is connected and controlled by the Winshaws in more ways than he thinks. The family represents all things wrong with the greed decade of the 1980s in Britain.

The author shows everything that can go wrong once creepy leaders rule the country. The Winshaws represent an upper-class family at their worst, where each of the siblings and parents has control over some aspects of society.

Hillary Winshaw is the youngest in the family working as a gossip columnist and known for destroying reputations. Roddy, her brother, is an exploitative art dealer and screws people at every chance, while Mark, their cousin, is a shady arms dealer.

All of them are successful, but due to their greed-driven and amoral way of living.

All the Winshaw stop at nothing until they achieve their goals, even if it will mean killing the people close to them. The author has done a superb job of picking the perfect subject in politics where some people never understand their profession and don’t mind others’ welfare. They are focused on earning a fat profit out of their business.

As Michael is commissioned to write biographies about the family members, he starts to do research. The more he discovers the evils they commit, the more he realizes how they have affected his life since childhood.

Most murders, wars, and disappearances are connected to the Winshaw family. Michael starts to blame them for the failure in his life while growing up. What a Carve Up doubles murder mystery which looks like a game of Cluedo. The novel also has lots of comedy scenes, adventure, and horror, and despite the complexity and smartness of the book, it’s entertaining and easy to read