The first in The Rotters' Club series, bestselling author Jonathan Coe's iconic tale of Benjamin Trotter is a hilarious, heartfelt celebration of the joys and agonies of growing up WINNER OF THE EVERYMAN WODEHOUSE PRIZE__________Birmingham, England, c. 1973: industrial strikes, bad pop music, first love, corrosive class warfare, detention, IRA bombings. Four friends: a class clown who stoops very low for a laugh; a confused artist enthralled by rock; an earnest radical with socialist leanings; and a quiet dreamer obsessed with poetry, God, and the prettiest girl in school. Unforgettably funny and painfully honest, packed with thwarted romance, class struggles and teenage angst, The Rotter's Club is perfect for readers of Nick Hornby and William Boyd - or anyone who ever experience adolescence the hard way! THE STORY CONTINUES WITH THE CLOSED CIRCLE AND MIDDLE ENGLAND__________'One of those sweeping, ambitious yet hugely readable, moving and richly comic novels that you find all too rarely in English fiction . . . a masterpiece' Daily Telegraph'Very funny . . . a compulsive and gripping read. Coe had achieved that rare feat: a novel stuffed with characters you really care for' The Times'A book to cherish, a book to reread, a book to buy for all your friends' Independent on Sunday