Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
What a Carve Up! cover art

What a Carve Up!

By: Jonathan Coe
Narrated by: Richard Goulding
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

White Nights cover art
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 cover art
Summer Lightning cover art
Brought to Book cover art
The Queen of New Beginnings cover art
Set in Stone cover art
Deadly Lies cover art
The Dandelion Years cover art
Into the Blue cover art
Caught in the Light cover art

Summary

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of What a Carve Up! by Jonathan Coe, read by Richard Goulding.   

It is the 1980s, and the Winshaw family are getting richer and crueller by the year: newspaper-columnist Hilary gets thousands for telling it like it isn't; Henry's turning hospitals into car parks; Roddy's selling art in return for sex; down on the farm Dorothy's squeezing every last pound from her livestock; Thomas is making a killing on the stock exchange; and Mark is selling arms to dictators.  

But once their hapless biographer, Michael Owen, starts investigating the family's trail of greed, corruption and immoral doings, the time is growing ripe for the Winshaws to receive their comeuppance.... 

This wickedly funny take on life under the Thatcher government was the winner of the 1995 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize.

Jonathan Coe's novels are filled with biting social commentary, moving and astute observations of life and hilarious set pieces that have made him one of the most popular writers of his generation. 

©2019 Jonathan Coe (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"A sustained feat of humour, suspense and polemic, full of twists and ironies." (Hilary Mantel, Sunday Times

"A riveting social satire on the chattering and all-powerful upper classes." (Time Out)

"Big, hilarious, intricate, furious, moving." (Guardian)

What listeners say about What a Carve Up!

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    70
  • 4 Stars
    18
  • 3 Stars
    10
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    74
  • 4 Stars
    12
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    66
  • 4 Stars
    16
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant

A sophisticated narrative with great story telling, social commentary and interesting characters that is brilliantly read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great listen

Super story, quality writing and brilliantly narrated.All the characters bring something special to the story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Couldn’t get into it

Didn’t get into it as middle England but some ya win some ya lose onto the next one

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic storytelling, perfectly read

Brilliant book, great story, plausibly well written. I’ve come to Jonathan Coe very late, and have just listened to this in 2023, about 28 years after publication. Still absolutely relevant to the state of the nation.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

What an Incredible, Enjoyable Achievement

I have been exploring Jonathan Coe’s back catalogue of novels on a speculative basis, rather than based on professional or reader/listener reviews. ‘What a Carve Up’ has repeatedly surprised, delighted, appalled, angered, saddened, and astounded me. It is a big novel by size, but is a novel! It has real energy and momentum. It has love, horror, dark humour, parody, farce, pathos, thoughtfulness, penetrating insight and ferocity. A powerful satire. Sometimes it is so deliciously and comically wicked that you sense it must have been written with a great deal of enjoyment. I initially thought that being published in 1994 that it would read as a novel of its recent time. Only superficially did it. In fact, I found it as relevant today, if not more so. Prospective listeners to the superb audio-book should not hesitate to select this Audible offering. It is excellently performed by Richard Goulding, a versatile and intelligent reader who can illuminate the humour, satire, tragic, despicable, and plain immoral. The novel’s title may seem odd, but only if you focus on the early 60s British film of the same name. The ‘carving up’ is the greedy slicing up of a cake for selfish people at the expense of what should be the focus of preservation – society. The characters created by Jonathan Coe to tell his story are so well drawn and managed, not least Findlay Onyx. The story of members of the vile Winshaw family that are chosen to illustrate and animate the awfulness of selfishness, greed and utter disregard for anyone else, and nothing for the fabric of society and thereby the harm done to it. Their stories flow and collide with the story of Michael Owen who is engaged to write the family’s history. His life acts to link to others who part of the wider society, and who reflect the awfulness done by the Winshaws. Nothing of the above is suggesting this is a grim novel. Nor is its intricate construction something that the listener will be much aware of, other than to applaud. Everything is inevitable in this novel. The novel makes all of it points so well without preaching, so much so that it is hard to disagree with Coe’s concerns. They ought to be the concerns of anyone in a belief in a caring society.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Fairly well read but quite hard to follow.

On the whole a decent story but with all the different points in time I found it difficult to follow - especially while driving.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

wasn't what I expected

plot seemed to drift all over the place , I found it hard to follow at times

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Extraordinary story.

A most memorable yarn filled with political insights, mystery & intrigue, hilarity and poignancy. Reminded me of everything hateful about Thatcher era and Capitalism. Had me creased up with laughter at some points. Fantastically brought to life by Richard Goulding's narration. Absolutely recommend 100% entertainment. Bravo.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant

Brilliant book and performance. This is now one of my all time favourites. Thank you

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Utterly brilliant.

This is one of the best books I’ve read (heard!) in ages. The writing is perfectly judged: funny, lyrical in a few places, biting, astute, human … just glorious. Jonathan Coe has written such a carefully and precisely structured novel. It slowly builds, interweaving storylines with sure and total artistry. I loved every moment of it.
The performance is - thank goodness - one of the best I’ve heard on Audible. The many voices are perfectly judged, and he certainly has a big cast of characters to present. If I could offer Richard Goulding a prize for best Audible narrator, I would.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!