Jonathan Coe

Lisa Salem-Wiseman (Humber College)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of York), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

Born 19 Aug 1961
Activity 1981-ongoing

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Novelist

Resources

Coe's Works

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Jonathan Coe is one of those rare novelists who succeed in combining formal innovation, biting social commentary, playful humour, and engaging plots and characters. His novels employ unconventional narrative structures, confront serious social issues, and explore provocative ideas, but they are also what are commonly described as “good reads”.

Jonathan Coe was born on August 19, 1961, in a suburb of Birmingham, England. His family was middle-class, with conservative political leanings. He attended King Edward’s School, a competitive, academic grammar school in Birmingham. Coe has been writing fiction since he was a child; at the age of eight, while on a family holiday in Wales, Coe wrote a long, mock-Victorian detective story entitled “The Castle of Mystery”, and by the age of

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2187 words

Citation: Salem-Wiseman, Lisa. "Jonathan Coe". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 March 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5843, accessed 26 November 2024.]