Jonathan Coe: ‘People say, where’s the anger? It’s still there’

In a career spanning more than 35 years, notable for novels such as What a Carve Up! and The Rotters’ Club, author Jonathan Coe has established himself as one of the UK’s keenest satirists. His works have become bestsellers in translation, and he’s been awarded the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize and the Prix Médicis. Bournville, his latest book, is perhaps his most personal, spanning three-quarters of a century and fusing a poignant family saga with pointed reflections on post-Brexit Britain.

I was planning a more typical state-of-the-nation novel, starting in 1945 and coming up to the present day, when my mum died. It was a very sudden death, and knocked me for six emotionally and creatively. Then my brother and I began clearing