The Rotters' Club (novel)
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The Rotters' Club is a 2001 novel written by Jonathan Coe, set in Birmingham during the 1970s. The title is based on an album of the same name by Hatfield and the North.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
[edit] Characters
Ben Trotter: A romantic musician and writer who has fallen for Cicely, the most beautiful student at the adjoining girls' school.
Phillip Chase: Best friend of Ben he is heavily into prog-rock and attempts to form a band, name "Gandalf's Pikestaff".
Doug Anderton: A passionate writer and opinionated young man, Doug attempts to transfer the socialist values of his father Bill to his mostly middle-class school.
Colin Trotter: In middle management at the Longbridge factory.
Sheila Trotter: Ben's mother.
Paul Trotter: Ben's younger brother.
Lois Trotter: Paul and Ben's older sister she attends the adjoining girls school.
Malcolm: Amiable guitarist and self-professed 'Hairy Guy' Malcolm is Lois' boyfriend, whom he met when she answered his personal ad in the newspaper.
Bill Anderton: Shop steward at the Longbridge factory and an active Union man he begins an affair with one of his colleagues, Miriam.
Irene Anderton: Bill's wife and Doug's mother.
Miriam Newman: The attractive secretary at the Longbridge factory.
Claire Newman: Miriam's younger sister.
Sam Chase: Phillip's dad who works as a bus driver.
Barbara Chase: Wife of Sam and mother of Phillip, she begins an affair with Miles Plumb, her very own son's art teacher.
Miles Plumb: The flamboyant art teacher at King William's, the school the teenagers attend.
Cicely Boyd: The most beautiful girl at the adjoining girls school she is the object of many of the boys' affections, particularly Ben Trotter's.
Sean Harding: Attends King William's, Harding is viewed as the practical joker. He writes letters to the school newspaper, The Billboard, under the pseudonym Arthur Pusey-Hamilton.
[edit] Adaptation
In 2003 a four part BBC Radio 4 adaptation written by Simon Littlefield was broadcast. In early 2005, a three part television adaptation written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais was broadcast on BBC Two, starring Geoff Breton as Ben Trotter, Nicholas Shaw as Doug Anderton and Rasmus Hardiker as Phillip Chase.
[edit] Sequel
A sequel to the book titled The Closed Circle, which picked up the characters in the 1990s, was released in 2004.
[edit] Trivia
The Rotters' Club holds the record for the longest sentence in English literature with 13,955 words. The sentence was inspired by Bohumil Hrabal's "Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age", a Czech novel that consisted of one great sentence.
[edit] External links
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