Books like middle england

Middle England is a 2018 novel by Jonathan Coe. It is the third novel in a trilogy, following The Rotters’ Club (2001) and The Closed Circle (2004). The novel explores the experiences of characters from those earlier novels against the backdrop of the major events taking place before, during and after the Brexit referendum.

Other characters from Coe's previous works appear in the novel including author Lionel Hampshire and his assistant Hermione (from his short story "Canadians Can't Flirt", collected in Tales from a Master’s Notebook), while characters from The Rotters’ Club and The Closed Circle, such as Cicely Boyd and Paul Trotter, are mentioned in passing.

In an author's note at the end of the novel, Coe states that there were two main inspirations behind his desire to revisit the characters from his earlier novels. After an interview with the novelist Alice Adams, in which she praised The Closed Circle, he entered into a correspondence with her, and “her enthusiasm” persuaded him that he “should revisit these abandoned characters”. In addition, after seeing Richard Cameron's theatrical adaptation of The Rotters’ Club, he became aware of the importance of the importance of Benjamin and Lois's relationship to the series of novels, and felt the desire to explore it further. In addition, Coe states that the character of Emily Shamma is named after a woman who made the winning bid to have a character in Coe's next novel named after her at an auction for the charity Freedom from Torture. Coe incorporated information about the origin of Shamma's name into the novel.