Some of the events chosen are more specific to England in their importance, such as the investiture of Prince Charles. Tied in, as you would expect, with the world of chocolate manufacturing it paints a picture of the social changes in Britain from the post-war era to the present day. We drop in on her every 10 years or so, at the big moments in the British century; The Queen's coronation, the '66 World Cup final, Diana's marriage and death. Thanks to Europa Editions and Netgalley for an advance copy, in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

This is fine, except Coe clearly hates the monarchy - or at least thinks it's utter nonsense - so all he does is have his characters snark and gripe about it in response.But this was a village founded on enterprise, and that enterprise was to sell chocolate, and even in the hearts of the Cadburys, these pioneers of British chocolate manufacture, there lurked a residual sense of the inferiority of the native product, compared to its Continental rivals. A book of things blended together: comedy with tragedy, England's past with its present, and cocoa solids with vegetable fat . Parts of the chocolate factory will be transformed into a theme park, and Bournville itself will gradually disappear into the sprawl of the growing city of Birmingham. And I did make it a point to get to the end before writing this review, just in case the novel could redeem itself before the end. The reactions of others to events and people reflect the opinions of the time, which can seem jarring through a modern lens.

While in Brussels and around the lobby and press group, the character first encounters the tousle haired Boris – and cleverly he re-appears later as a part is set in Cllywd South in Boris’s unsuccessful 1997 general election candidacy (the switch of that very red seat to Conservatives in 2019 when Boris is now party leader also being featured). All these interweaving plotlines, all the reappearing names, events and, above all, places give the impression of an author whose work is driven by an almost obsessive need to take new perspectives on the past (and its role in shaping the present), to rehearse and re-rehearse foundation myths both personal and national. You might have thought, for the people who named it, that with its almshouses and playing fields, its miniature boating lake and white-flannelled cricketers, the village was built as an archetype - a parody, almost - of a certain notion of Englishness. Bournville” va ascritto a tutti gli effetti alla categoria “saga familiare”, accompagna le vicende dei Lamb per tre quarti di secolo, con la particolarità di scandirne le tappe tramite gli avvenimenti della recente storia inglese e della famiglia reale; il personaggio centrale, l’unico che seguiamo in tutto il percorso esistenziale da nipotina a bisnonna, è Mary Lamb, che nella postfazione l’autore afferma ispirata in parte alla propria figura materna. That aside, "Bourneville" is Coe at his best: gentle and clever while reflecting changing attitudes and mores, yet heart-warming and thoughtful without being sentimental, and all the while an easy read that will make you think, smile, and cry, and sometimes all at once.Like the Trotter books there are though a lot of characters across and around the generations of the Lamb family before you get to the bit-players, the latter include Colin and Paul Trotter who put in appearances as distant family members as does David Foley from Coe's "Expo 58"; the sheer number of cast members does make it occasionally tough going as you play the who are they, where have they appeared before game.