Mr wilder And Me

Jonathan Coe’s comic novels – from What A Carve Up! to his Costa prizewinning Middle England – have been wooing readers for decades.

His latest is the story of Calista, an Anglo-Greek film composer who faces a looming empty nest. In her latest composition, she reflects on Billy Wilder, the real-life Hollywood director she once briefly worked for.

We see Calista learn about cinema and fall in love, while Wilder relates episodes from his own career – including the film he made about the death camps, where he fears his mother died.

His later films – such as Sunset Boulevard and Some Like It Hot – took the business of entertainment as a moral duty, offering elegant tonics for mid-century despair. Mr Wilder And Me is an homage to a great director. A slice of pure pleasure for our troubled times, it has all the wit, economy and grace of a Wilder movie.