A riot act

Jonathan Coe is surprised by his eminence. ‘I’m just a comic Agatha Christie,’ he says. Coe was at the Guardian last night in King’s Cross – the newspaper’s book club has been reading What A Carve Up, Coe’s satire of the Thatcher years.

Coe understands the book’s continued popularity and relevance. ‘The political mood has not changed in that time, arguably it’s got worse.’ He welcomes the book’s success; but regrets that society has not rejected the apostles of greed and laments that even the Labour party now dallies with the filthy rich.

Coe conceived of writing a political-satire-cum-social-panorama in the mid-eighties, but took several years to complete the project. What A Carve Up was finally published in 1994. Without meaning to give too much away, it is the story of the Winshaw clan, a family of unutterable rapacity. Each member represents a vice within the sphere of politics, culture, finance, arms dealing, food production and the media.