Jonathan Coe

Thank you, Richard - glad you had a good time reading it.

Tilda Swinton as Sybil Jardine obvs.

Incidentally I always thought Lehmann’s The Ballad and the Source would make an amazing film - a chance to iron out the faults of the novel apart from anything else.

But hey, we can still look forward to new adaptations of two other neglected novels, Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility.

Yes - this recording was included on the 3-LP compilation Triple Echo in 1977 (quite unusual in those days for a Peel session to make it onto vinyl) which was my introduction to Soft Machine. It’s marvellous.

Thank you! Lovely blog. Haven’t re-read her for ten years or so and this makes me want to.

Excellent blog about a great novelist who was at the forefront of Virago’s rediscovery of women writers fifty years ago but now almost qualifies as ‘neglected’ again.

Couldn’t agree more

Fascinating stuff! The joke they used instead in ‘One for the Road’ (‘Blood or urine, sir?’ ‘Just a cup of tea, please’) is even funnier I think, because it’s rooted in character, showing Bob absorbed in his self-pity. And beautifully delivered by Rodney B.

Yep, you probably win

No the miners’ strike was 84-85

Agreed

My take - a series of wrong turns/misfortunes since 1979:

- Election of Thatcher
- Death of John Smith
- Supporting the Iraq War
- GFC 2008
- Austerity
- 2015 election result
- Brexit
- Covid

Eight body blows in 46 years, some of them just bad luck, some self-inflicted.

Good grief. Thoughts, @philippeauclair.bsky.social ?

How on earth can fiction respond to Trump? There are many novels about the American present, including my own. Some even purport to resist it. But readers are in need of something more… transgr...

This is a very good piece, not just on the American literary response to Trump (with useful reading tips) but on the more general difficulties of dealing with the present political moment in fiction.

The reaction I keep getting from people I try to discuss it with is usually just a shrug of the shoulders, along with being told that I'm not cynical enough. "I thought everybody knew that books like that were all made up."

Who cares - I love it! As you say, a classic.

Didn't know that one! Saint-Saëns, I see.

One that my mother loved and played a lot - Waldo de los Rios's version of Mozart's Symphony No 40.

ELO's Roll Over Beethoven

Would be interesting to make a list of hits from (roughly) that era that adapted or quoted classical pieces. There were quite a few others, eg:

Sabre Dance
I Believe in Father Christmas
Fanfare for the Common Man

Reissued recently with intro by Kim Newman

Doctors Wear Scarlet by Simon Raven?

Next-book news.

Hoping this will be the first time Gustav Mahler, Ken Dodd, Carla Bley and I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue have all been mentioned in the same LRB piece.

I don’t always enjoy writing book reviews but the one I’ve just done for @lrb.co.uk was sheer delight - not least because of the background (re-)reading …

Thank you Tony.

Thanks! Looks like a must-buy.

Sorry, that should be @richardnskinner.bsky.social

‘The Carbon Arc’ ‘I always want the audience to outguess me, and then I double-cross them.’  ​ —Buster Keaton Marina Benjamin /  Jonathan Coe / Jude Cook / Rob Doyle / Wendy Erskine / Gareth Evans / Maria...

If you enjoyed this piece, do consider buying the anthology it comes from, The Carbon Arc, edited by @richaardn.bsky.social. The full version of my essay is twice as long as the one The Observer has printed: but more importantly, the other contributions sound great.

The Bond film that made me a writer | The Observer Jonathan Coe’s parents took him to see On Her Majesty’s Secret Service at the age of eight – and it has influenced his novels ever since. It just took a ...

Why do so many of my books have a similar ending? Maybe it was that film my parents took me to see when I was eight.

observer.co.uk/culture/film...

The Bond film that made me a writer | The Observer Jonathan Coe’s parents took him to see On Her Majesty’s Secret Service at the age of eight – and it has influenced his novels ever since. It just took a ...

Excellent piece by the mighty @jonathancoe.bsky.social from tomorrow's @theobserveruk.bsky.social about the Bond film that made him a writer observer.co.uk/culture/film...