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Jonathan Coe

@jonathancoe.bsky.social

14K followers 920 following 710 posts

Writer. New novel is THE PROOF OF MY INNOCENCE. Previous titles include WHAT A CARVE UP!, THE ROTTERS' CLUB, MIDDLE ENGLAND, MR WILDER AND ME ... https://linktr.ee/coelinks

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Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 23d

Updated tour itinerary, with three November dates added in the south of France.

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Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 3h

Do you know the track February in Shropshire by Stackridge? Sadly it was only ever recorded for a BBC radio session and the only fragment of it I can find online is this ultra-low quality clip. (Starting at 10’50”)

Stackridge: Radio One Session Circa 1974

YouTube video by greenguitarman

youtu.be

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Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 4h

(*Shudders*)

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Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 4h

ATV/Central showed it in the early 80s I think. Couldn’t believe something so good was going out with no fanfare.

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Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 9h

They also need better subs. Surely ‘European Union’ in this headline is a typo for ‘Daily Telegraph’?

Lord Dom B @lorddom.bsky.social · 14h

Since the Brexit referendum, the Telegraph has become the Pantomine Dame of confected outrage against the very thing it fought for and continues to uphold. The new Schengen Entry and Exit System isn’t sound border management but a “pointed insult”. Hilarious.

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Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 14h

Yes! We need more of this, to show there are more of us than there are of them. Well done Birmingham for leading the way.

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 16h

‘Brummies united against racism’: poster campaign takes on the far right

A message of neighbourly solidarity is thriving in Birmingham against a backdrop of racist intimidation When Mus unfurled the leaflet lying on her driveway, she was left shocked, angry and upset. “White Britons are already a minority in London … it is clear that if these trends continue white people will become a minority in Britain,” it read. The leaflet, written by a far-right group, was distributed along her street three years ago in Moseley, a leafy suburb of Birmingham. It went on to blame NHS waiting lists, a shortage of social housing and even traffic on “the rising population”. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

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Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 1d

All right, Mr Goldberg, two can play at that game.

Privileged to spend an afternoon @bewdleyfestival.bsky.social with one of the great broadcasters of our time @goldbergradio.bsky.social

Adrian Goldberg @goldbergradio.bsky.social · 1d

Privileged to spend an afternoon @bewdleyfestival.bsky.social with one of the the great authors of our time @jonathancoe.bsky.social

His latest novel 'The Proof Of My Innocence' is well worth your time.

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Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 3d

Did a double take when I saw this. Then again, I’ve been called worse.

Queer Satanic @queersatanic.bsky.social · 3d

"Jonathan Choe is a wet bitch" sticker/printout from Seattle circa 2022

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Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 3d

Listening to the Howell now - wonderful.

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Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 3d

I was amazed recently to discover an orchestral piece by Vaughan Williams that I'd never heard before. It was performed just once in his lifetime (12/11/1907). It's no Tallis Fantasia (the main influences are still Germanic - folk song and English hymnody hadn't really kicked in) but still ...

Vaughan Williams : Harnham Down, Impression for orchestra (1904-07)

YouTube video by Rodders

www.youtube.com

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Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 3d

Could be just what you need. (A powerful sedative.)

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Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 3d

I may be wrong, but I suspect László Krasznahorkai wouldn’t namecheck David Nobbs as one of his major influences.

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Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 3d

This was a while ago now but I remember it as a very enjoyable interview.

Goon Pod @goonpod.bsky.social · 3d

Goon Pod talked to Jonathan Coe.

He chatted about his influences such as David Nobbs, B.S Johnson and Flann O'Brien and one of his earliest exposures to freewheeling comic prose via Spike Milligan's 1963 novel Puckoon. Take a listen:

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/j...

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Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 4d

I share your love of all things Maurice. Not always a fan of cover versions, but I'm partial to this medley, which is from a very beautiful album of guitar/piano duets.

Ravel

YouTube video by Aleksander Debicz - Topic

www.youtube.com

Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 4d

Makes sense

Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 4d

This morning I turned on my phone only to find that it had changed my user name to Shirley, and when I tried to enter a simple Google query it came out as "Do you like gladiator movies?"

Then I realised it was in Airplane! mode.

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Reposted by Jonathan Coe

stuartmaconie.bsky.social @stuartmaconie.bsky.social · 5d

I know Handsworth well. I love it. The Soho Road is one of the most vibrant streets in the world. I was attached to the library there for a writing project last year and I wrote a whole chunk about it in my book Hope And Glory. Read it if you get a chance

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Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 5d

Thanks - and how nice now to be the owner of that review copy! Didn’t he call it a ‘timid experiment’?

Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 5d

TLS or Sunday Times or Obs I think - the review is quoted in my biog.

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Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 5d

I do like it a lot but these days I prefer Small World which I find less schematic and much funnier - for me that's David's masterpiece.

Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 5d

... in that Lodge took the central device of switching between different forms but had a sense of how to adapt it for the mass readership BSJ had craved but never found. 2/2

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Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 5d

Thank you! I actually think the missing link is David Lodge. Talking about David at an event in B'ham recently, I realised what a large and direct debt Changing Places owes to BSJ's Travelling People (which he'd definitely read) ... 1/2

Nick Black @fuzzynick.bsky.social · 5d

Very interesting Q&A. Re formal & structural games, I felt - especially with TPOMI - that you've pulled off the play & experimentalism that BS Johnson was doing but, unlike him - maybe because of your 'slightly vulgar populist streak' 😉 - have succeeded in selling that (and your books) to readers.

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Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 5d

Well, my selection would be equally wilful as these are my two favourites and apparently they're not liked much by Bley purists.

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Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 5d

Tickets for my event at the Bewdley Festival on Saturday are selling like hot cakes.*

*(During the notorious hot cake slump of 1857.)

Bewdley Festival Ticket Booking | Bewdley Festival Ticket Booking,

events.bewdleyfestival.org.uk

Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 5d

In which I talk about three of my favourite books - including one by @katebeaton.bsky.social

Jonathan Coe on his favourite, wildly funny, fantastical novel

The Rotters’ Club author recommends Flann O’Brien’s The Third Policeman, an amazing graphic memoir and a forgotten classic by Rosamond Lehmann

www.thetimes.com

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Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 5d

In which I talk about anxiety as a motivating force, never being considered for the Booker, and an early novel that's become problematic.

Jonathan Coe: ‘I have a fascination with the right’

The author on keeping his liberal instincts in check, his love of breaking the literary fourth wall, and not fitting comfortably into the world

observer.co.uk

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