Jonathan Coe

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Jonathan Coe

Coe in 2006
Born: August 19, 1961
Birmingham, UK
Occupation(s): novelist
Nationality: British
Writing period: 1987-present
Genre(s): satire

Jonathan Coe, born August 19, 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 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 fictionlised version of his 1970's alma mater KES) was also adapted for television and broadcast on BBC Two. The Dwarves of Death was filmed as Five Seconds to Spare.

[edit] Novels

[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)

[edit] External links

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