Jonathan Coe

Jonathan Coe, born 19th August 1961 in Birmingham, is a British novelist and writer. His work usually has an underlying preoccupation with political issues, although this is often expressed seriously in the form of satire. For example, What a Carve Up! reworked the plot of an old 1960s spoof horror film of the same name, in the light of the 'carve up' of the UK's resources which some felt was carried out by Margaret Thatcher's right wing Conservative governments of the 1980s. He studied at King Edward's School, Birmingham and Trinity College, Cambridge, before teaching at the University of Warwick.

Both What a Carve Up! and The Rotters' Club have been adapted as drama serials for BBC Radio 4; The Rotters' Club (which was set in a very lightly fictionalised version of his old school in the 1970s King Edward's School, Birmingham) was also adapted for television and broadcast on BBC Two. The Dwarves of Death was filmed as Five Seconds to Spare.

In a recent article [1], British journalist John Pilger mentions sending a copy of What a Carve Up! to the imprisoned Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi

[edit] Novels
The Accidental Woman Duckworth, 1987
A Touch of Love Duckworth, 1989
The Dwarves of Death Fourth Estate, 1990
What a Carve Up! or The Winshaw Legacy Viking, 1994 (winner of the 1994 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize)
The House of Sleep Viking, 1997 (winner of the Prix Médicis)
The Rotters' Club Viking, 2001 (winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize).
The Closed Circle Viking, 2004
The Rain Before It Falls Viking 2007

[edit] Non-fiction
Humphrey Bogart: Take It and Like It Bloomsbury, 1991, a biography of Humphrey Bogart
James Stewart: Leading Man Bloomsbury, 1994, a James Stewart biography
Like a Fiery Elephant: The Story of B. S. Johnson Picador, 2004 (winner of the 2005 Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction