Jonathan Coe

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guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 22 July 2008 15.41 BST

1961-

"The spectacle of so many writers - myself included - continuing to work within a form that has patently played itself out strikes me as rather funny."

Birthplace

Birmingham, England

Education

Trinity College, Cambridge

Other jobs

Academic, journalist, literary critic, biographer (Humphrey Bogart, James Stewart)

Did you know?

"I wrote my first book at 11, and novels at 15" (he says that unhappiness at school could well be why he started writing).

Critical verdict

What a Carve-Up! - witty, politically angry, fantastically plotted and quietly moving - made his name; the follow-up The House of Sleep continued his personal themes of transformation and confusion, but dropped the political engagement and was less satisfying. By comparison, the earlier novels read like apprentice works. The Rotters' Club, evoking 1970s Birmingham boyhood, seems to herald a soapier style.

Recommended works

What a Carve-Up!, The House of Sleep

Influences

Frank King, 50s comedy

Now read on

He rates BS Johnson, Shena Mackay, Barbara Trapido and Pat Barker; a particular favourite is Alasdair Gray - "Every time he writes a novel he seems to reinvent the form."