Jonathan Coe (1979)

Biography

Jonathan Coe was born in 1961 and attended KES from 1972-79. He went on to study at Trinity College, Cambridge and then Warwick University where he was awarded a PhD for his thesis on Henry Fielding's Tom Jones. His first novel The Accidental Woman was published in 1987, and he has written nine further novels, including What a Carve Up!, The Rotters' Club and Expo 58. His books have won prizes at home and abroad, including the Prix Médicis Etranger and the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic writing. His biography of the experimental novelist BS Johnson, Like A Fiery Elephant, won the 2005 Samuel Johnson Prize. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Why I am supporting the AP100 Campaign

The British education system is fractured and unequal. At the moment, we have a situation where schools offering one sort of education, often leading to better opportunities in work, higher education and social advancement, are accessible only to those whose parents can afford to pay for them. While this situation continues, I support campaigns like King Edward's AP100 scheme, which makes a worthwhile and admirable attempt to redress the balance.