Bournville by Jonathan Coe

Author:Jonathan Coe [Coe, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241517413
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2022-09-23T00:00:00+00:00

3.

29th July 1981, 7 a.m.

For Martin, having access to his own full-sized colour television seemed even more miraculous than renting his own house. He had set the alarm for six-thirty and promised Bridget that after a quick shower he would start making sandwiches for the guests, but when she came downstairs just after seven she found him lounging on the sofa, oblivious to her presence, his gaze fixed on a cartoon intended for young children.

‘Catching up on your viewing, are you?’

Martin sat up with a guilty start.

Bridget was about to make another sarcastic comment, but the action unfolding on the screen caught her attention and she sat down beside him.

‘Oh, I used to love Tom and Jerry.’

‘It’s not one of the old classics,’ he said. ‘I think this one’s from the sixties. It’s terrible.’

‘And yet here you are, watching it.’

Martin took the hint, and rose to his feet. ‘Sandwiches.’

‘I’ll come and give you a hand.’

They left the television on, and from the kitchen they could hear the wedding coverage starting: it began at a quarter to eight, more than three hours before the marriage ceremony itself was due to take place. For the next ninety minutes there was endless discussion of Lady Diana’s dress, and reports from Balmoral Castle and Caernarfon Castle, where nothing much seemed to be happening. Martin and Bridget busied themselves preparing food and moving chairs into the living room.

At nine-thirty, earlier than invited, Mary arrived. She came with her parents, Sam and Doll, having collected them from their new house in Barnt Green. They had been living there for a few weeks, and hadn’t taken to it at all. Martin thought they looked frail, depressed, and very, very elderly. Even so, they were happy to see him, and made no secret of their curiosity to meet Bridget. Doll shook her formally by the hand, but Sam was warmer. ‘All I’ve seen of you,’ he said, ‘is one picture. Is it too soon for me to give you a kiss?’

‘Ooh, I don’t think so,’ said Bridget, offering her cheek. ‘It is a special day, after all.’

Sam puckered up and put his wrinkled lips against the smoothness of her cheek. Doll glared at him and afterwards, when they were alone in the living room, she said: ‘What did you have to kiss her for? You always take things too far, you do.’

Mary gave Bridget a quick hug and asked if there was anything she could do to help in the kitchen. Meanwhile Martin brought coffee for his grandparents, and tried to get them settled. Already, now that there were five people in the house, he had become aware of how very small it was. Even the furniture seemed too small for Sam, who sat stiffly and awkwardly in the armchair, clutching tightly on the handle of his mug of coffee as it rested on his fragile knee. When Peter and Geoffrey arrived they brought Bertha with them: normally Sam would have got up to embrace her – for

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