Editing Jonathan Coe

{{short description|English novelist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name        = Jonathan Coe
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|list=[[FRSL]]}}
| image       = Jonathan Coe 20221130.jpg
| caption     = Coe at [[Hatchards]] London in 2022
| pseudonym   =
| birth_date  = {{Birth date and age|1961|8|19|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Bromsgrove]], [[Worcestershire]], England
| death_date  =
| death_place =
| occupation  = Novelist
| period      = 1987–present
| genre       = [[Satire]]
| subject     =
| movement    =
| notableworks= ''[[What a Carve Up! (novel)|What a Carve Up!]]'' (1994); ''The House of Sleep'' (1997); ''[[The Rotters' Club (novel)|The Rotters' Club]]'' (2001); ''[[Middle England (novel)|Middle England]]'' (2019)
| awards      = [[John Llewellyn Rhys Prize]]; [[Samuel Johnson Prize]]; [[Prix Médicis]]; [[Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize]]; [[Costa Book Award]] 
| influences  =
| influenced  =
| website     =
| footnotes   =
}}

'''Jonathan Coe''' {{post-nominals|list=[[FRSL]]}} ({{IPAc-en|k|oʊ}}; born 19 August 1961) is an English novelist and writer. His work has an underlying preoccupation with political issues, although this serious engagement is often expressed comically in the form of [[satire]].<ref>{{cite journal | doi=10.2478/ewcp-2022-0008 | title="Brexit from the Campus": Jonathan Coe's ''Middle England'' | date=2022 | last1=Mengel | first1=Ewald | journal=East-West Cultural Passage | volume=22 | pages=154–174 | doi-access=free }}</ref>  For example, ''[[What a Carve Up! (novel)|What a Carve Up!]]'' (1994) reworks the plot of an old 1960s spoof horror [[What a Carve Up! (film)|film of the same name]]. It is set within the "carve up" of the UK's resources that was carried out by [[Margaret Thatcher]]'s [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] governments of the 1980s.

==Early life and education==
Coe was born in [[Bromsgrove]], Worcestershire, on 19 August 1961 to Roger and Janet (née Kay) Coe.<ref name=Debretts2005>{{cite book|title=Debrett's People of Today 2005|year=2005 |edition=18th|isbn=1-870520-10-6|publisher=[[Debrett's]]|page=329}}</ref> He studied at [[King Edward's School, Birmingham]], and [[Trinity College, Cambridge]].<ref name=Debretts2005/>  He taught at the [[University of Warwick]], where he completed an MA and [[PhD]] in English Literature.<ref name=Debretts2005/>

==Career==
Coe has long been interested in both music and literature.  In the mid-1980s he played with a band (The Peer Group) and tried to get a recording of his music. He also wrote songs and played keyboards for a short-lived [[feminist]] cabaret group, Wanda and the Willy Warmers.<ref>{{cite news|last=Laity|first=Paul|title=Jonathan Coe: A Life in Writing|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/may/29/life-writing-jonathan-coe|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=29 May 2010}}</ref>

He published his first novel, ''The Accidental Woman'', in 1987. In 1994 his fourth novel ''[[What a Carve Up! (novel)|What a Carve Up!]]'' won the [[John Llewellyn Rhys Prize]], and the [[Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger]] in France. It was followed by ''The House of Sleep'', which won the [[Writers' Guild of Great Britain]] Best Novel award and, in France, the [[Prix Médicis]]. As of 2022, Coe has published fourteen novels.

Besides novels, Coe has written a biography of the experimental British novelist [[B. S. Johnson]], ''Like a Fiery Elephant'', which D. J. Taylor described in ''[[Literary Review]]'' as "a deeply unconventional biography," won the [[Samuel Johnson Prize]] in 2005.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://literaryreview.co.uk/hour-of-the-egoist|title=Hour of the Egoist|first=D. J.|last=Taylor|date=June 2004}}.</ref> Also in 2005 Penguin published his "collected shorter prose", a volume consisting of only 55 pages, under the title ''9th & 13th''. The same collection was published in France in 2012 under the title ''Désaccords imparfaits''.

He has written a short children's adaptation of ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'' by [[Jonathan Swift]], and a children's story called ''The Broken Mirror''. Both titles are published in Italy only, as ''La storia di Gulliver'' (2011) and ''Lo specchio dei desideri'' (2012).

A handwritten manuscript page from ''[[The Rotters' Club (novel)|The Rotters' Club]]'' was displayed as part of the "Writing Britain: Wastelands to Wonderlands" exhibition that ran at the [[British Library]] during 2012.

Coe was a judge for the [[Booker Prize]] in 1996 and has been a jury member at the [[Venice Film Festival]] (in 1999, under the chairmanship of [[Emir Kusturica]]) and the [[Edinburgh Film Festival]] in 2007.

In 2012 Coe was invited by [[Javier Marías]] to become a duke of the kingdom of [[Redonda]]. He chose as his title "Duke of Prunes", after a favourite piece of music by [[Frank Zappa]].

Coe read an excerpt of ''[[The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim]]'' to crowds at the [[Latitude Festival]] in July 2009. The central character was to be "a product of the social media boom", and "the sort of person with hundreds of Facebook friends but no one to talk to when his marriage breaks up."<ref>[https://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2009-07/28/jonathan-coe-on-how-to-build-a-bettter-e-book.aspx? Katie Scott, "Jonathan Coe on how to build a better e-book"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090730040351/http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2009-07/28/jonathan-coe-on-how-to-build-a-bettter-e-book.aspx |date=30 July 2009 }}, Wired Blog, 28 July 2009.</ref>

Coe's 2019 book ''[[Middle England (novel)|Middle England]]'' won the [[European Book Prize]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20191209-talking-europe-jonathan-coe-european-book-prize-2019-winner-brexit-uk|title=British author Jonathan Coe, European Book Prize 2019 winner|website=France24|date=9 December 2019|access-date=28 November 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.euronews.com/2019/12/10/jonathan-coe-brexit-might-begin-a-conversation-britain-needs-to-have-with-itself|title=UK election: 'Getting Brexit done is going to take decades' says Jonathan Coe|first=Jez|last= Fielder|author2=Alasdair Sandford|author3=Isabel Silva|website=Euronews|date=23 December 2019|access-date=28 November 2021}}</ref> and also won the [[Costa Book Award]] in the Novel category.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/06/jonathan-coe-wins-costa-fiction-prize-for-perfect-brexit-novel|title=Jonathan Coe wins Costa prize for 'perfect' Brexit novel|newspaper=The Guardian|first=Alison|last=Flood|date=6 January 2020}}</ref>

==Film and TV adaptations==
Both ''What a Carve Up!'' (1994) and ''[[The Rotters' Club (novel)|The Rotters' Club]]'' (2001) have been adapted as drama serials for [[BBC Radio 4]].<ref name=bbcrottersclub/> ''What a Carve Up!'' was adapted by [[David Nobbs]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0076qlg|title=BBC Radio 4 Extra - What a Carve Up!, Episode 1|website=BBC}}</ref>  ''The Rotters' Club'' was adapted for television by [[Dick Clement]] and [[Ian La Frenais]] and broadcast on [[BBC Two]] in January–February 2005.<ref name=bbcrottersclub>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/therottersclub/|title=BBC - Drama - The Rotters' Club|website=www.bbc.co.uk}}</ref> ''The Dwarves of Death'' (1990) was filmed as ''Five Seconds to Spare'' in 1999, for which Coe himself co-wrote the screenplay.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b82976f2c|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200417112623/https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b82976f2c|url-status=dead|archive-date=17 April 2020|title=Five Seconds to Spare (1999)|website=BFI}}</ref>

''[[The Very Private Life of Mister Sim]]'', a French film based on ''The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim'', directed by [[Michel Leclerc]] and produced by Delante Cinema and Kare Productions, was released on 16 December 2015.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-hsetwe/the-very-private-life-of-mister-sim/|title=The Very Private Life of Mister Sim (2015)|website=Radio Times}}</ref>

==Musical collaborations==

Music is a constant thread in Coe's work. He played music for years and tried to find a record label as a performer before becoming a published novelist. He had to wait until 2001 to make his first appearance on a record with ''9th & 13th'' (Tricatel, 2001), a collection of readings of his work, set to music by jazz pianist/double bass player Danny Manners and [[indiepop]] artist [[Louis Philippe (musician)|Louis Philippe]].

Coe is a lifelong fan of [[Canterbury sound|Canterbury]] [[progressive rock]]. His novel ''The Rotters' Club'' is named after an album by [[Hatfield and the North]]. He has contributed to the liner notes for that band's archival release ''Hatwise Choice''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.hatfieldandthenorth.co.uk/|title=Hatfield and the North|website=www.hatfieldandthenorth.co.uk}}</ref> He once said: "I'd love to find a pianist to collaborate with – maybe Alex Maguire, who is now playing with the reformed line-up of Hatfield and the North". In fact, this collaboration did come to fruition, at the [[Cheltenham Literature Festival]] in 2009, where Maguire performed a suite of piano pieces to accompany readings from the novel ''[[The Rain Before It Falls]]''. Coe has also performed live with [[flautist]] [[Theo Travis]].

Coe wrote the sleevenotes "Reflections on The High Llamas" for the 2003 compilation of [[The High Llamas]] ''Retrospective, Rarities and Instrumentals''. He has also written lyrics for songs on the albums ''My Favourite Part of You'' and ''The Wonder of It All'' by [[Louis Philippe (musician)|Louis Philippe]], and ''Earth to Ether'' by Theo Travis, for which the vocalist was [[Richard Sinclair]].

In 2008 Coe wrote ''Say Hi to the Rivers and the Mountains'', a 60-minute piece of what he calls "spoken musical theatre", with dialogue to be delivered continuously by three actors over a sequence of songs and instrumentals by The High Llamas. The work was premiered at the Analog Festival in Dublin that summer, and subsequently performed at various venues in the UK and Spain. The most recent performance was as part of the ''Notes and Letters'' Festival at [[Kings Place]] in London in September 2011, with [[Henry Goodman]] in the leading role of Bobby. The piece is inspired by the proposed demolition of [[Robin Hood Gardens]], an East London council estate designed by [[Alison and Peter Smithson]].

In March 2011, at the City Winery in New York, Coe took the keyboard solos on a live version of "Nigel Blows A Tune" from the [[Caravan (band)|Caravan]] album ''[[In the Land of Grey and Pink]]'', along with the musician/novelist [[Wesley Stace]] and his band The English UK.

==Personal life==
Coe married Janine McKeown in 1989, and they have two daughters born in 1997 and 2000.<ref name=Debretts2005/>

In 2009, Coe took part in [[Oxfam]]'s first annual book festival, "Bookfest". Along with [[William Sutcliffe]], Coe volunteered for the Oxfam Bloomsbury Bookshop in London on Thursday 9 July.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.oxfam.org.uk/applications/blogs/books/?p=1664&|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608083239/http://www.oxfam.org.uk/applications/blogs/books/?p=1664&|url-status=dead|title=Oxfam books blog: Jonathan Coe and William Sutcliffe create window displays for the Oxfam Bloomsbury Bookshop|archive-date=8 June 2011}}</ref> Coe and Sutcliffe were each asked to choose a theme, and to find books from the stockroom to set up in the shop's window. Coe chose satire as the theme for his display. He chose books by or about [[Michael Moore]], [[Bill Hicks]], [[Peter Cook]] and [[Steve Bell (cartoonist)|Steve Bell]]. He also unearthed a script of [[Terry Gilliam]]’s film ''[[Brazil (1985 film)|Brazil]]''.

Coe donated a story to [[Oxfam]]'s "[[Ox-Tales]]" project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Coe's story was published in the ''Earth'' collection.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/content/books/books_oxtales.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718005818/http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/content/books/books_oxtales.html|url-status=dead|title=Oxfam: Ox-Tales|archive-date=18 July 2011}}</ref>

He is a trustee of the charity Cleared Ground Demining, and in spring 2007 visited [[Guinea-Bissau]] to write an article about their operations there.<ref>{{cite news|last=Coe|first=Jonathan|title=Deadly Legacy|url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2007/aug/18/voluntarysector?INTCMP=SRCH|newspaper=The Guardian|date=18 August 2007}}</ref>

In a 2001 newspaper interview, Coe described himself as an [[atheism|atheist]].<ref>{{cite news|first=Sally|last= Vincent|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/feb/24/fiction.jonathancoe1 |title=A Bit of a Rotter|newspaper=The Guardian|date=24 February 2001|page= 36}}</ref>

==Honours and awards==
* 1994, [[John Llewellyn Rhys Prize]] (for ''What a Carve Up!'')
* 1995, [[Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger]]
* 1997, [[Writers' Guild of Great Britain]] Best Fiction Book
* 1998, [[Prix Médicis]] Étranger (for ''The House of Sleep'')
* 2001, [[Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize]] (for ''The Rotters' Club'')
* 2004, Chevalier of the [[Ordre des Arts et des Lettres]]
* 2004, Premio Arcebispo Juan de San Clemente
* 2005, [[Samuel Johnson Prize]] (for ''Like a Fiery Elephant'')
* Honorary degrees: DLitt, [[University of Birmingham]] (2006);<ref>{{cite web|title=List of honorary graduates since 2000|url=http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/senate/honorary-graduates-since-2000.pdf|publisher=University of Birmingham|access-date=28 January 2015}}</ref> DLitt, [[University of Wolverhampton]] (2006);<ref>{{cite web|title=Honorary doctorates for 2006|url=http://www.wlv.ac.uk/alumni/honorary-graduates-2013/honorary-graduates-2011/honorary-doctorates-for-2006/|publisher=University of Wolverhampton|access-date=28 January 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20150128201307/http://www.wlv.ac.uk/alumni/honorary-graduates-2013/honorary-graduates-2011/honorary-doctorates-for-2006/|archive-date=28 January 2015}}</ref> DUniv, [[Birmingham City University]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Honorary Graduates of Birmingham City University|url=http://www.bcu.ac.uk/about-us/corporate-information/honorary-graduates/full-list|publisher=Birmingham City University|access-date=28 January 2015|archive-date=27 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180827110400/http://www.bcu.ac.uk/about-us/corporate-information/honorary-graduates/full-list|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* 2012, Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Literature]]
* 2019, [[European Book Prize]] (for ''Middle England'')
* 2019, [[Costa Book Award]] - Novel (for ''Middle England'')
* 2019, Bauer-Ca' Foscari award at [[:it:Incroci_di_civiltà|Incroci di civiltà]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Robin |date=2019-04-10 |title=Jonathan Coe wins BAUER award 2019 in Italy |url=https://felicitybryan.com/jonathan-coe-wins-bauer-award-2019-in-italy/ |access-date=2023-04-10 |website=Felicity Bryan Associates |language=en-GB}}</ref>

==Bibliography==
===Novels===
*''The Accidental Woman'', Duckworth, 1987
*''A Touch of Love'', Duckworth, 1989
*''The Dwarves of Death'', Fourth Estate, 1990
*''[[What a Carve Up! (novel)|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 (novel)|The Rotters' Club]]'', Viking, 2001 (winner of the [[Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize]]).
*''[[The Closed Circle (novel)|The Closed Circle]]'',  Viking, 2004
*''[[The Rain Before It Falls]]'', Viking, 2007
*''[[The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim]]'', Viking, 2010
*''[[Expo 58 (novel)|Expo 58]]'', Viking, 2013
*''[[Number 11 (novel)|Number 11]]'', Viking, 2015
*''[[Middle England (novel)|Middle England]]'',<ref>{{Cite book|title=Middle England|last=Jonathan|first=Coe|date = 8 November 2018|isbn=9780241309469|location=[London]|oclc=1065525001}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/nov/25/middle-england-jonathan-coe-review|title=Middle England by Jonathan Coe review – Brexit comedy|last=Preston|first=Alex|date=25 November 2018|work=The Guardian|access-date=28 December 2018|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Viking, 2018
*''[[Mr Wilder and Me]]'', Viking, 2020
*''Bournville'', Viking, 2022
*''The Proof of My Innocence'', Viking, 2024

===Books for children===
*''La storia di Gulliver'', L'espresso 2011
*''Lo specchio dei desideri'', Feltrinelli 2012

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

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite journal |last=Mengel |first=Ewald |title='Brexit from the Campus': Jonathan Coe’s Middle England  |journal=East-West Cultural Passage |volume=22 |issue=1 |date=2023 |pages=154-174 |doi=10.2478/ewcp-2022-0008 |doi-access=free }}

==External links==
* {{official website |https://jonathancoewriter.com/ }}
* [http://www.threemonkeysonline.com/threemon_article_jonathan_coe_closed_circle_interview.htm Closing the Circle: Jonathan Coe In Interview]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050826042717/http://www.palimpsest.org.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=698 Online discussion about Jonathan Coe and B.S. Johnson]
* {{British council|id=jonathan-coe|name=Jonathan Coe}}
* [http://www.tv-radio.com/ondemand/france_culture/BIBLIOTHEQUE/BIBLIOTHEQUE20060826.ram A one-hour interview] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081218062928/http://www.tv-radio.com/ondemand/france_culture/BIBLIOTHEQUE/BIBLIOTHEQUE20060826.ram |date=18 December 2008 }} about his writing (France-Culture, Bibliothèque étrangère, Francesca Isidori)
* [http://www.bbk.ac.uk/mir/issue1/j_coe_intro.html Jonathan Coe on Writing]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/bookclub/ram/bookclub_20070401.ram Audio Podcast on BBC4's Bookclub]
* [http://www.bbk.ac.uk/writloud/Writers.htm#C Jonathan Coe reading from "The Rain Before It Fall" at writLOUD]
* [http://www.clearedground.org Cleared Ground Demining official website]

{{Jonathan Coe}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Coe, Jonathan}}
[[Category:1961 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Warwick]]
[[Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:English atheists]]
[[Category:English biographers]]
[[Category:English male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:English satirists]]
[[Category:British satirical novelists]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature]]
[[Category:John Llewellyn Rhys Prize winners]]
[[Category:New Statesman people]]
[[Category:People educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham]]
[[Category:People from Bromsgrove]]
[[Category:Prix Médicis étranger winners]]