Another Tom Sharpe novel (in fact, the last one) and so another big country mansion full of grotesques – in this case the vast, architecturally bizarre Sandystones Hall in which reside big, roaring Sir George Gadsley – who is partial to very fat lady cooks (like Philomena Jones, who makes him roast pork with all […]
All posts found when searching for tom sharpe
The Wilt Inheritance by Tom Sharpe (2010)
Posted by Simon on September 8, 2016
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2016/09/08/the-wilt-inheritance-tom-sharpe/
The Gropes by Tom Sharpe (2009)
Sharpe was 81 when this book was published and had, according to the dedication, survived a serious illness which nearly killed him in 2006. We’re lucky to have the book at all. Although not one of his best, The Gropes trundles along at a kind of guaranteed basic level of comedy without ever reaching the heights […]
Posted by Simon on September 7, 2016
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2016/09/07/the-gropes-tom-sharpe/
Wilt in Nowhere by Tom Sharpe (2004)
This is the fourth in the series of novels about hapless polytechnic lecturer Henry Wilt, his wife Eva, and their incorrigible four little girls, now aged 14, at convent school and bubbling over with an unhealthy interest in all things sexual. The plot gets going when Eva receives an invitation for her and the girls […]
Posted by Simon on September 6, 2016
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2016/09/06/wilt-in-nowhere-tom-sharpe/
The Midden by Tom Sharpe (1996)
Thatcher’s legacy Sharpe is revolted by the power, corruption and lies in British society. Since this book was published in 1996, he’s talking about the power, corruption and lies which rose during Mrs Thatcher’s premiership, 1979 to 1990 and the book contains a number of surprisingly cutting references to her and her policies, specifically the […]
Posted by Simon on September 3, 2016
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2016/09/03/the-midden-tom-sharpe/
Grantchester Grind by Tom Sharpe (1995)
The Praelector waited in the drawing-room, staring out into the pulsating night and thinking about the May Balls he had known in his youth. They had been sedate affairs and he had enjoyed them enormously, swinging round the Hall doing the quickstep or a foxtrot and, most daringly of all, the tango with a polished […]
Posted by Simon on August 22, 2016
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2016/08/22/grantchester-grind-tom-sharpe/
Wilt On High by Tom Sharpe (1984)
‘And don’t get the idea I’m on a right-wing, flog ’em and hang ’em reactionary high because I’m not… I’m just mister stick-in-the-middle who doesn’t know which way to jump.’ (p.138) Third outing for Henry Wilt, bilious lecturer and Head of Liberal Studies at the Fenland College of Arts and Technology (‘the Tech’). The brilliant […]
Posted by Simon on October 14, 2015
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2015/10/14/wilt-on-high-tom-sharpe/
Vintage Stuff by Tom Sharpe (1982)
Either I’ve changed or Sharpe’s novels have changed, but I haven’t enjoyed the last few as much as the earlier ones. The farce seems forced. The setting For authors who went to public school, public schools hold an infinite fascination, hence the number of novels about them from a profession dominated by former public school-educated […]
Posted by Simon on September 20, 2015
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2015/09/20/vintage-stuff-tom-sharpe/
Ancestral Vices by Tom Sharpe (1980)
Insanity could, with the help of modern medicine, be cured but dead dwarves were beyond any form of aid (Ancestral Vices, p.137) This is the first Sharpe novel I’ve read which I didn’t find funny. Grotesque, yes, but it lacked the compelling (il-)logic of the previous novels. Plot summary Lord Petrefact is a wicked old […]
Posted by Simon on August 19, 2015
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2015/08/19/ancestral-vices-tom-sharpe/
The Wilt Alternative by Tom Sharpe (1979)
The Wilt Alternative is the sequel to Wilt (1976), possibly Sharpe’s best-known novel. It starts in the same comic-fantastical mode as its predecessor, with absurd events trying Wilt’s threadbare patience: drunk on the way back from the pub, Henry Wilt has a pee in a rosebush but badly scratches his member, is then caught by his wife dipping […]
Posted by Simon on August 2, 2015
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2015/08/02/the-wilt-alternative-tom-sharpe/
The Throwback by Tom Sharpe (1978)
The Throwback by Tom Sharpe (1978) continues his vein of aggressively crude and violent farce, often with hilarious results. As I read it I realised that, if the plots are designed to be convoluted and contrived and the characters grotesque and improbably naive or fiendish or weird, in order to bring about ludicrous scenes and […]
Posted by Simon on August 1, 2015
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2015/08/01/the-throwback-tom-sharpe/
Books & Boots 