Set largely in London and Birmingham the story follows the lives of six or seven key players (some of whom, I believe, featured in The Rotters’ Club), with writer Benjamin and niece Sophie being the central characters. The book can be viewed, at least in part, as an extended political opinion piece largely about the middle class, left-leaning, Brexit remainers, with plenty of self mockery, satire and exploration of relationships thrown in. 

Middle England explores how Brexit came to pass, why Brexit came to pass, and what the future is likely to hold for our generation. It is demonstrating that discerning who the heroes and villains in society are, why people act as they do and what the future holds for us is hard to pin down. As such, it reflects the confusion that Brexit itself created and its satire is insightful. As a left-leaning political commentary, it largely represents the views of a character called Doug – a middle class lefty journalist who happens to be sleeping with a conservative MP, but whilst Doug might have political clarity he doubts (rightly) his parenting skills and questions the extent to which he is responsible for the state of Middle England – all from a wealthy middle class stance of course! 

For me, the extensive political satire and commentary in Middle England was didactic. It is an overly covert journey of a writer, Jonathan Coe, trying to make sense of a mess that  Britain has found itself in and whilst the whole piece is an effective metaphor showing the problems of trying to fathom the unfathomable there is too much explanation and too much telling, We are invited to join in the analysis, but this step by step evaluation detracts from the literariness of the novel. Rather like the trimmed down book that Benjamin gets published in the story, the novel Middle England could do with a little trimming itself.

The best parts of the book are the insights into the people who feature in it. I am encouraged to care about Sophie. I understand how Brexit brought her to the brink of divorce with Ian, but I find her ‘almost’ relationship with Adam a more interesting way of understanding the divide between her and Ian.. Despite being poor at picking up humour, I can see and enjoy the bleak irony that Sophie, as the most politically correct person in the book, is almost fired for telling a transgender person that they are a bit ‘indecisive’ (this comment being about a completely different issue). I can empathise with her hope for something better around the corner and understand her inner-wrangling regarding the extent at which she feels she needs to settle for ‘second best’ in life.