This was a family saga mixed with British social history. At time political (which I liked but not everyone would) and also moving, particularly the final section which covered the time of the pandemic (I was reading it on a train and cried), my criticism would be that at times the writing felt slightly clunky and the story lines a bit contrived. Overall though a very enjoyable read and a solid 4 star from me.

This is less a state of the nation novel from Coe and rather a personal ode to his mother and the years of change she would have witnessed. It is not without allusions to real life figures and events that have marred and scarred the British landscape as Coe uses the most important keystones of recent British history to furnish us with a further story or narrative about Mary, the fictive stand in for Coe’s mother, and her close family.

From VE Day 1945 to the 75th Anniversary of the same in 2020, we view episodes of these lives and how they are touched or even defined by the events of British history. The family dynamics and the background upon which they play out are immensely recognisable with grudges and irritations building over the years. The trauma of Lockdown is revisited in the latter stages of the book and the nightmare came back pretty vividly topped off with snippets of speeches from The Queen and Boris Johnson showing the way Britain lives in thrall to its past and traditions even with the transparency of how much Monarchy and Government truly mean.

On the whole, it isn’t a gripping or stirring book, but hugely readable in the style that Coe has honed over the years with realistic characters therein. Maybe one more for the Coe completists among us.

Charlie is a star! The book is very good on the silences of family life, what is allowed to be said and what not, and who gets to speak.

One of these books where you know the author is hitting all the historical beats in a given time frame, from the second world war to covid, via Windrush, the coronation, Capel Celyn, the 1966 world Cup, , thatcherism and everything in between. I think it's mainly unpicking the roots of Brexit, focusing on our complicated relationship with our neighbours, especially the Germans. He takes car manufacturing and chocolate making as two emblematic industries through which to see the effects of EU regulation on the lives of ordinary people. I almost feel like the covid material might have been tacked on at the end, partly because it was Boris Johnson who was at the wheel, the chief salesman of Brexit and chief imitator of Churchill.
It's very insightful and pleasingly fair to both sides: he isn't just doing attacking Brexit or boosting it, he's showing some of the tensions that run through our national character.
The sort of metronomic passage of time through the narrative made it feel a bit forced, but it's also probably inevitable if you're trying to pull off this sort of retrospective view of our recent history, so I can't really moan.
Oh and one of the characters lives a stones throw from my house and runs in the same place I run, so that's a bonus.

I really liked this one - the characters were interesting and realistic, even if I'd wanted to spend a bit more time with some of them (and some do appear in other books, I learned at the end). A very enjoyable read, as always with Coe.

A very entertaining and amusing attempt to write a novel about two of England's recent traumas, Covid and Brexit. It's mostly about our changing relationship with Europe over the last 75 years and how society and taboos have changed during this time. I'm not sure it irritated me too much but the reliance on the characters being in the orbit of critical moments in British history each chapter was very noticeable.