Jonathan Coe - Definition and Overview

Jonathan Coe, born 1961 in Birmingham, is an English novelist and writer. His work usually has an underlying preoccupation with social issues, although this is often expressed humorously 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 Britain's resources which some felt was carried out by Margaret Thatcher's right-wing Conservative governments of the 1980s. He is a graduate of the University of Warwick.

Novels

• The Accidental Woman
• A Touch of Love
• The Dwarves of Death
• What a Carve Up! (winner of the 1995 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize)
• The House of Sleep (winner of the Prix Médicis)
• The Rotters' Club (winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize).
• The Closed Circle

Non-fiction

• Humphrey Bogart: Take It and Like It London, 1991, a biography of Humphrey Bogart
• James Stewart: Leading Man London, 1994, a James Stewart biography
• Like a Fiery Elephant: The Story of B. S. Johnson London 2004