Three teenage friends grow up in 1970s Britain watching their lives change as their world gets involved with IRA bombs, progressive and punk rock, girls and political strikes.
Characters
Ben Trotter: A romantic musician and writer who has fallen for Cicely Boyd, the most beautiful pupil at the adjoining girls' school.
Philip Chase: Best friend of Ben. He is heavily into progressive rock and attempts to form a band named "Gandalf's Pikestaff".
Doug Anderton: A passionate writer and opinionated young man, Doug attempts to transfer the socialist values of his father Bill to his mostly middle-class school.
Claire Newman: Closest female friend of Benjamin, Philip and Doug, and the younger sister of Miriam. She has bitter feelings about religion due to the Christianity forced upon her and her sister by their ill-tempered father.
Lois Trotter: Paul and Ben's sister. She attends the adjoining girls' school.
Malcolm: Amiable guitarist and self-professed 'Hairy Guy' Malcolm is Lois's boyfriend, whom she met when she answered his personal ad in the newspaper.
Bill Anderton: Shop steward at the Longbridge factory and an active Union man, he begins an affair with one of his colleagues, Miriam.
Irene Anderton: Bill's wife and Doug's mother.
Miriam Newman: The attractive secretary at the Longbridge factory.
Sam Chase: Philip's dad, who works as a bus driver; friend of Ben, Philip and Doug.
Barbara Chase: Wife of Sam and mother of Philip, she begins an affair with Miles Plumb, her son's art teacher.
Miles Plumb: The flamboyant art teacher at King William's, the school the teenagers attend.
Cicely Boyd: The most beautiful girl at the adjoining girls' school. She is the object of many of the boys' affections, particularly Ben Trotter's.
Sean Harding: Attends King William's. Harding is viewed as a practical joker. He writes letters to the school newspaper, The Billboard, under the pseudonym Arthur Pusey-Hamilton.
The UK indie band Neils Children featured as the band playing at the 'live' concert in the programme. The song used was one of their own, after the band turned down the song supplied by the musical director of the show.[citation needed]
Reception
In a 2002 review, The New York Times praised The Rotters' Club as "richly constructed and brilliantly ornamented."[6]The Daily Telegraph characterized the book as an "ambitious... moving, richly comic novel," according to the publisher's website.[7] A review in The Guardian was more ambivalent, critiquing Coe's tendency to introduce larger social and political issues into a coming-of-age story, arguing that various characters "undergo rites of passage that make no difference."[8]
Sequels
Coe has published two sequels to the book. The Closed Circle picked up the characters' lives at the very end of the 1990s. Middle England opens in 2010 and addresses issues such as Brexit and climate change.
Influence
The British Punk band The Rotters named themselves after the novel. The band was known for featuring a young Faris Badwan on drums.[citation needed]
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