In Bournville, a placid suburb of Birmingham, sits a famous chocolate factory. For eleven-year-old Mary and her family in 1945, it's the centre of the world. The reason their streets smell faintly of chocolate, the place where most of their friends and neighbours have worked for decades. Mary will go on to live through seventy-five years of social change, from the Coronation and the World Cup final, to royal weddings, royal funerals, Brexit and Covid-19. She'll have children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Parts of the chocolate factory will be transformed into a theme park, as modern life and the city crowd in on their peaceful enclave. Will these changing times bring Mary's family - and their country - closer together, or leave them more adrift and divided than ever before?
Jonathan Coe
Jonathan Coe is a British author known for his humorous and satirical take on contemporary society and politics. His most notable works include "What a Carve Up!" and "The Rotters' Club," which explore themes of family, class, and the changing landscape of British society. Coe's writing style is characterized by sharp wit, clever wordplay, and keen observations of human behavior. He has been praised for his ability to blend comedy with social commentary, creating works that are both entertaining and thought-provoking. Coe's impact on the literary genre can be seen in his ability to capture the complexities of modern life with humor and insight. His most famous work, "What a Carve Up!," is a satirical novel that critiques the excesses of the 1980s and 1990s in Britain, and has been hailed as a modern classic.