Number 11 by Jonathan Coe review – a sequel to What a Carve Up!

A brutal family dynasty shows its staying power in this state-of-the-nation satire that takes in reality TV, wealth inequality, the death of David Kelly and giant spiders

The title of Jonathan Coe’s 11th novel is, of course, the official home of the chancellor of the exchequer. It is also a bus route that makes a complete journey around Birmingham’s outer circle, providing a haven for those who might not want to go home because, for example, they can’t afford to put the heating on. On top of this, it’s the putative lowest level in an obscenely extravagant multi-storey basement planned by a super-rich Chelsea family. “What is the lady of the house going to put there?” asks Rachel, recently appointed tutor to the Gunns’ twin daughters. “Nothing,” replies the harassed project manager, thinking of the palm trees he has to transport to a subterranean swimming pool. “She can’t think of anything she wants it for.”

Number 11 is also a sequel, of sorts, to Coe’s 1994 novel, What a Carve Up!, the monstrously funny satire-cum-farce about the monstrously terrible Winshaw family, whose lust for power took them into virtually every aspect of British life: the media, the arms trade, agriculture and food production, the health service, the art world. Many of them were savagely disposed of at the close of What a Carve Up!, but the dynasty proves to be hydra-headed, its remnants demonstrating here that they are every bit as rapacious and brutal as their predecessors. Their depredations are smoothly updated to reflect a contemporary setting: reality television, the profitable mopping-up after overseas conflict, highly efficient tax avoidance, the exploitation of migrant workers.

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