Book description
A brilliant noir farce, a dystopian vision of Britain, a family history
and the story of an obsession. Michael is a lonely, rather pathetic
writer, obsessed by the film, 'What A Carve Up!' in which a mad kinfeman
cuts his way through the inhabitants of a decrepit stately pile as the
thunder rages. Inexplicably he is commissioned to write the family
history of the Winshaws, an upper class Yorkshire clan whose members
have a finger in every establishment pie, from arms dealing to art
dealing, from politics to banking to the popular press and factory
farming. During his researches Michael realizes that the Winshaws have
cast a blight on his life, as they have on Britain. His confidence, his
sexual and personal identity begin to reform. In a climax set in the
Winshaw's family seat the novel turns into the film, 'What A Carve Up!'
as a murderous maniac stalks the family and Michael discovers the
significance of Shirley Eaton's lingere. Jonathan Coe was born in
Birmingham in 1961. His most recent novel is
The Rain Before It Falls
. He is also the author of The Accidental Woman
, A Touch of Love
, The Dwarves of Death
, What a Carve Up!
, which won the 1995 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, The House of Sleep
, which won the 1998 Prix Medicis Etranger, The Rotter's Club
, winner of the Everyman Wodehouse Prize and The Closed Circle
. He has also published a biography of the novelist B. S. Johnson, which
won the Orwell prize in 2005. He lives in London with his wife and two
children.
