Jonathan Coe and Anthony Quinn in conversation

Join us for the opening event of our Literary Festival which sees bestselling authors Jonathan Coe and Anthony Quinn in conversation with Dr Lucienne Loh, Reader in the University’s Department of English, to talk about their shared interests in time, memory, film, music and art.

Jonathan is the author of 14 novels and his latest, Bournville, tells the story of post-war Britain through four generations of one family growing up in the Birmingham suburb. His previous novels include What a Carve Up!, The House of Sleep, The Rain Before It Falls and The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim. His 2019 book Middle England - the third novel featuring the characters from The Rotters’ Club and The Closed Circle - was awarded the Costa Novel of the Year and the Prix du Livre Européen. His books have won particular acclaim in France, where he has recently been appointed Officer dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Liverpool-born Anthony Quinn was film critic of the Independent for 15 years. His first novel The Rescue Man won Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award and since then he has written eight more, including Half of the Human Race, Our Friends in Berlin and London, Burning. He is also the author of football memoir Klopp which was released in 2020. A film adaptation of his novel Curtain Call is due for release later this year starring Ian McKellen and Gemma Arterton and his forthcoming novel is based on the Wallace murder case in 1930s Liverpool. His most recent novel Molly & The Captain is out now in paperback.