NetGalley Member Review Middle England by Jonathan Coe Pub Date: 08 Nov 2018 Review by Sam W, Reviewer Last updated on 13 Nov 2018 I Recommend This Book Strongly A new book by Jonathan Coe is like greeting an old friend. His books have the capacity to move me like few others. Middle England is his Brexit novel but is so much more than that. It examines the conditions that led up to it, taking in ‘political correctness gone mad’, ‘people like you', and why we never saw it coming. Some of the characters return from The Rotters Club, and The Closed Circle although this reads as a stand alone novel perfectly. Coe shows us how we were encouraged to be dissatisfied with immigration and multiculturalism. As in the British Empire , we are being divided and ruled. Ben Trotter unexpectedly has a book published. A newspaper profile makes it look as if it only happened because of tenuous connections to ‘elites and experts.’ Sophie, a lecturer, is accused of transphobia due to a teenage girl who ‘knows her rights.’ As austerity bites throughout the David Cameron Premiership, people look for someone to blame. One dialogue that runs through the novel is a series of meetings between a journalist, Doug and a communications director in the Tory Government, Nigel. At every meeting save the last one, Nigel makes out that everything is going brilliantly. After the referendum result, he admits that the country is ‘fu**ed’, and that everything is a mess. Despite this, Middle England ends on a tone of glorious hope that makes up glad we made the journey.

Jonathan Coe is always a pleasure with his well written books. Funny and thought provoking approach.

I hadn't read the previous books in this series, but was pleased it worked for me as a stand alone novel, and I will certainly look to read the others as "prequels"! It felt quite odd reading such recent history as a novel, but I felt the author used the characters well to encourage the reader to stop and look again at the momentous changes which are happening in the personal and national lives of our country and its citizens.

Middle England is the third in Jonathan Coe's Rotters' Club series- The Rotters' Club, The Closed Circle and now Middle England. Having started during the 1970s, continued with the Millennium, Mr Coe now turns his attentions and those of his older, but not necessarily wiser, characters to BREXIT. As usual Jonathan Coe has produced an amusing novel but, I don't feel that this is one of his best. Don't get me wrong, as Jonathan Coe is a very talented author, what is 'not one of his best' (in my opinion) still makes it well worth reading!

Working for Waterstones meant that I was lucky enough to receive a proof copy of this book well before the publication date. Jonathan Cole is angry about how Britain has changed, overall since 1979 but specifically in the last 8 years for this politically charged novel. He is angry about the rise in anger, hatred and division in Britain and how he thinks it has changed for the worse. Reviving characters first seen in The Rotters Club he intertwines actual events with fictional ones to take their story right up to the present day. It is a funny, thought provoking and entertaining read; though maybe less so if you voted leave.