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Bournville

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Bournville

By: Jonathan Coe
Narrated by: Peter Caulfield, Cara Horgan
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

From the bestselling, award-winning author of Middle England comes a profoundly moving, brutally funny and brilliantly true portrait of Britain told through four generations of one family.

In Bournville, a placid suburb of Birmingham, sits a famous chocolate factory. For eleven-year-old Mary and her family in 1945, it's the centre of the world. The reason their streets smell faintly of chocolate, the place where most of their friends and neighbours have worked for decades. Mary will go on to live through the Coronation and the World Cup final, royal weddings and royal funerals, Brexit and Covid-19. She'll have children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Parts of the chocolate factory will be transformed into a theme park, as modern life and the city crowd in on their peaceful enclave.

As we travel through seventy-five years of social change, from James Bond to Princess Diana, and from wartime nostalgia to the World Wide Web, one pressing question starts to emerge: will these changing times bring Mary's family - and their country - closer together, or leave them more adrift and divided than ever before?

Bournville is a rich and poignant novel from the bestselling, Costa award-winning author of Middle England. It is the story of a woman, of a nation's love affair with chocolate, of Britain itself.

©2022 Jonathan Coe (P)2022 Penguin Audio
20th Century Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literature & Fiction Political Royalty Satire Fiction Comedy Funny Heartfelt Inspiring Tear-jerking Witty Thought-Provoking

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Critic reviews

"A wickedly funny, clever, but also tender and lyrical novel about Britain and Britishness and what we have become." (Rachel Joyce)

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A good novel, which uses significant events in British history, from World War 2 to the first Covid lockdown, told through their impact on generations of one family. I like the way Coe sees the tiny, often poignant details of how these events impact ordinary lives.

The narrator was okay, but frequently mispronounced words, or got the stress wrong in sentences, which made it harder to get absorbed in the novel. But I’d still recommend this to anyone who enjoyed Coe’s previous novels.

Enjoyable novel but very average narration

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I really don’t understand the criticism of this book’s narration, I thought it was spot on, as was everything else. Coe writes both male and female characters that are totally recognisable and believable. Although I don’t know the Midlands well, Coe’s sense of place is such that I feel as if I do.

Another great read/listen from Coe

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I loved the gentle cadences of this story that takes us on a journey with a family from VE Day to the Covid lockdown. It’s clever. It’s beautifully written and it weaves its way through the significant moments of 75years of British history.

Some might find looking in the mirror of English attitudes and social norms uncomfortable. For me, having lived through a good number of the key moments, it was a wonderful way to reflect on those times with the benefit of perspective.

Beautiful narrative of post-war Britain

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I enjoyed all of it especially the narrative. Was also interesting to hear about bornville and Birmingham

Family story and history

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Thoroughly enjoyed this and it resonated with me e as i compared it with the lives of my parents and grandparents.

the demarcation of the story through national events.

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