| The Rotters' Club | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Jonathan Coe |
| Country | UK |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Viking Press |
| Publication date | 22 Feb 2001 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover, paperback) and audio book |
| Pages | 405pp (hardcover edition), 416 pp (paperback edition) |
| ISBN | 978-0670892525 |
| OCLC Number | 45338345 |
| Dewey Decimal | 823/.914 21 |
| LC Classification | PR6053.O26 R68 2001 |
| Preceded by | The House of Sleep |
| Followed by | The Closed Circle |
The Rotters' Club is a 2001 novel by British author Jonathan Coe, set in Birmingham, England during the 1970s. The title is taken from the album The Rotters' Club by experimental rock band Hatfield and the North.[1] In 2004 the book was followed by a sequel, The Closed Circle.
The Rotters' Club is inspired by Coe's own experiences at King Edward's School, Birmingham in the 1970s.[2]
The book held the record for the longest sentence in English literature with 13,955 words. That record was broken by Nigel Tomm's one-sentence, 469,375-word book, The Blah Story, Volume 4.[3][4] The sentence was inspired by Bohumil Hrabal's Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age, a Czech language novel that consisted of one great sentence.
Contents |
Three teenage friends grow up in the British 1970s watching their lives change as their world gets involved with Provisional Irish Republican Army bombs, progressive and punk rock, girls and political strikes.
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.
A sequel to the book, titled The Closed Circle, which picked up the characters' lives at the very end of the 1990s, was published in 2004.