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  • Published: 5 December 2013
  • ISBN: 9780241968901
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 256

Marginal Notes, Doubtful Statements

Non-fiction, 1990-2013



A 20-year journey journey through the world of books, music, film, politics and memory from one of Britain's most acclaimed novelists and cultural thinkers

'I decided to divide the collection into two halves: the first consists of pieces mainly on individual writers, musicians or filmmakers; the second consists of autobiographical works, expanded to include a few reflections on politics, general literary issues and sometimes my own writing.

Each half has a specific character. Many (if not most) of the figures discussed in Part One are outside the mainstream or the canon: they have been marginalised either by their gender, their aesthetic, by some awkwardness of temperament or even (from the British point of view) simply by having the bad manners to write in a language other than English. Hence 'Marginal Notes'. In Part Two I noticed there was another emerging theme: the importance of doubt to (my) writing, its potential as both a liberating and an inhibiting force, culminating in my Tolkien lecture on this subject. Hence 'Doubtful Statements'.' - - Jonathan Coe, July 2013

  • Published: 5 December 2013
  • ISBN: 9780241968901
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 256

About the author

Jonathan Coe

Jonathan Coe was born in Birmingham in 1961. His novels include Rotters, The Accidental Woman, A Touch of Love, The Dwarves of Death and What a Carve Up!, which won the 1995 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Itranger.The House of Sleep won the Writers' Guild Best Fiction Award for 1997.

Jonathan Coe was born in Birmingham, UK, in 1961. He began writing at an early age. His first surviving story, a detective thriller called The Castle of Mystery, was written when he was eight. His first published novel was The Accidental Woman in 1987, but it was his fourth, What a Carve Up!, that established his reputation as one of England’s finest comic novelists, winning the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1985 and being translated into many languages. Seven bestselling novels and many other awards have followed, including the 2005 Samuel Johnson Prize for Like A Fiery Elephant, a biography of the experimental novelist, B. S. Johnson. Jonathan lives in London with his wife and two daughters.

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