The Rotters' Club - Jonathan Coe

The 1970s were a time of great change for the social and political fabric of the United Kingdom, out went socialism (in its more true form) and with the advent of the Thatcher government, in came capitalism of a particularly virulent nature. Trade unions, who had previously had the power to cripple an economy for sometimes petty and selfish reasons were to have their power and in some cases their dignity removed. In a way the 70s were a decade of conflicting extremes, anger, punk rock, violent picket lines, violent police and violent terrorism. The 70s were not just a decade of disco, bell bottoms and long collared shirts, this was a decade of real shifting sands, of ...  Read the complete review

We all know that you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, but the moment I saw The Rotters' Club with it's off-white Anaglypta wallpaper covering, I knew it had to be a laugh, and it is...at first anyway. (Do kids still have to cover their school books with wallpaper these days I wonder?) In them days we never had nothing! Not like kids today and all the things they take for granted! No CD's DVD's VCR's or PC's. As someone says in the introduction: "sometimes people even had to do without electricity. Imagine!" Ah yes, imagine all the people sitting in the dark ("I ...  Read the complete review

. . . . they do things differently there The title of this review (a quote from L P Hartley) expresses how I feel having read The Rotter’s Club” by Jonathan Coe. It’s a strange experience to read a book set in a period of time you lived through, and don’t regard as particularly long ago, and to realise quite how different the culture and attitudes of the ear have changed. As L. P. Hartley said, “.” Jonathan Coe is a master story teller, and he commences this novel in 2003 when two young people discuss over dinner some of the stories their parents generation told about their school days. The book then goes ...  Read the complete review

~This book explores the lives, or that part of it lived during the 70s, of a group of schoolkids, who are mostly connected to the British Leyland plant at Longbridge. This being the 70s, their parents are largely split between 'management' and 'union', but their kids aren't particularly bothered by such distinctions. The central family to the plot is the Trotters - dad in middle management, eldest daughter Lois, middle kid Ben and youngest kid, the precocious brat Paul. If you like your 70s nostalgia trips, you'll find plenty to keep you going here, with cultural references flying left, right and centre. And you don't have ...  Read the complete review

My brother got this book as an 'alternative Easter present', that is, a more interesting present than piles of chocolate eggs (they don?t last long, and he eats too much chocolate anyway!). Anyway, my dad thought this looked like an interesting book, and after Jow had finished it, I picked it up to read. My parents grew up in the mid 70s, and it?s an era that interests me, especially around the punk time. The story starts off with a 'prelude' of two characters meeting by chance in 2003 after their parents suddenly notice each other, and over a dinner they then tell each other the stories of what happened when their parents were growing up. There ...  Read the complete review