Expo 58

The World's Fair, Belgium, 1958. Freshly arrived is mild-mannered civil servant Thomas Foley, here to ensure the British contribution - a pub called the Britannia - is no national embarrassment. But it is the height of the Cold War and the Fair is a hotbed of paranoia and deceit. With his superiors fearful of leaked secrets and defections, Thomas is spied on and directed to spy on others. Thrust into a game he barely understands, distracted by a romance which tests his marital and family loyalties to their limit, Thomas gamely tries to do the right thing - if only someone will tell him what that is . . .

About the Author

Jonathan Coe, born 19 August 1961 in Birmingham, is a British novelist and writer. His work usually has an underlying preoccupation with political issues, although this serious engagement is often expressed comically in the form of satire. For example, What a Carve Up! reworks the plot of an old 1960s spoof horror film of the same name, in the light of the 'carve up' of the UK's resources which some felt was carried out by Margaret Thatcher's right wing Conservative governments of the 1980s. Coe studied at King Edward's School, Birmingham and Trinity College, Cambridge, before teaching at the University of Warwick where he completed a PhD in English Literature. In July 2006 he was given an honorary degree by The University of Birmingham.