thigh slappingly hilarious, 09 Jun 2007
Henry Wilt hasn't been promoted in ten years of work in further education. He is also down trodden somewhat by his wife Eva... or so it seems. Then the pair go to some pseudo intellectuals party (the Pringsheims) and all hell breaks loose after the hostess sets Wilt up in a compromising position with an inflatable doll after Wilt refuses to have sex with her. Following the discovery by Eva she buggers off with the Pringsheims leaving Henry to his increasingly warped thoughts. Soon he hatches a plan murder Eva at the risk of him being made to look a fool over the doll furore... this feeling is fuelled when Eva posts him another doll. Wilt decides to use it in place of Eva in a dummy murder run dumping it down a shaft at the tech where he works. Then when the builders are about to fill the hole they spot the doll and a hilarious story ensues. A must read!

Simply HIlarious, 29 Apr 2007
This is the funniest book I have ever read, hands down. If you have never laughed out loud at a book before, read this. You WILL be rolling around, laughing out loud like an idiot!
Tom Sharpe makes comic genius look like something that can be learned at a run-down Further Education college. Sadly it can't.

Superb!, 01 Jun 2005
The funniest book of all time! I was in hospital with a severe throat infection when I read it. It was agony to swallow or talk, let alone laugh. But after less than 20 pages the nurses has to take it off me as I was waking up the whole ward. Next day, I fell out of bed when I came to the bit about the greenhouse - the drip torn out of my arm. I was released from hospital 2 days later.

Hillarious!!!, 08 Apr 2005
Absolutely amazing! I bought this book when I was about to travel and I could not put it down!! Amazing British humour! Tom Sharpe is just excellent!

Wilt by Tom Sharpe, 09 Dec 2003
I first read this book some twenty years ago on a train to London about to embark on my career in Higher Education. For the first time in my life I laughed out loud at a book. I sat on the train in public and could not help laughing at nearly every page, until tears streamed down my face. Tom Sharpes sartorial humour had not been surpassed since. Plumbers four, blow up dolls and further educationalists have never been the same since. Hugely funny.

thigh slappingly hilarious, 09 Jun 2007
Henry Wilt hasn't been promoted in ten years of work in further education. He is also down trodden somewhat by his wife Eva... or so it seems. Then the pair go to some pseudo intellectuals party (the Pringsheims) and all hell breaks loose after the hostess sets Wilt up in a compromising position with an inflatable doll after Wilt refuses to have sex with her. Following the discovery by Eva she buggers off with the Pringsheims leaving Henry to his increasingly warped thoughts. Soon he hatches a plan murder Eva at the risk of him being made to look a fool over the doll furore... this feeling is fuelled when Eva posts him another doll. Wilt decides to use it in place of Eva in a dummy murder run dumping it down a shaft at the tech where he works. Then when the builders are about to fill the hole they spot the doll and a hilarious story ensues. A must read!

Simply HIlarious, 29 Apr 2007
This is the funniest book I have ever read, hands down. If you have never laughed out loud at a book before, read this. You WILL be rolling around, laughing out loud like an idiot!
Tom Sharpe makes comic genius look like something that can be learned at a run-down Further Education college. Sadly it can't.

Superb!, 01 Jun 2005
The funniest book of all time! I was in hospital with a severe throat infection when I read it. It was agony to swallow or talk, let alone laugh. But after less than 20 pages the nurses has to take it off me as I was waking up the whole ward. Next day, I fell out of bed when I came to the bit about the greenhouse - the drip torn out of my arm. I was released from hospital 2 days later.

Hillarious!!!, 08 Apr 2005
Absolutely amazing! I bought this book when I was about to travel and I could not put it down!! Amazing British humour! Tom Sharpe is just excellent!

Wilt by Tom Sharpe, 09 Dec 2003
I first read this book some twenty years ago on a train to London about to embark on my career in Higher Education. For the first time in my life I laughed out loud at a book. I sat on the train in public and could not help laughing at nearly every page, until tears streamed down my face. Tom Sharpes sartorial humour had not been surpassed since. Plumbers four, blow up dolls and further educationalists have never been the same since. Hugely funny.

Spoof at apartheid, 29 Apr 2007
Tom Sharpe's spoof at apartheid is brilliantly written and its comical sense of way also exposes the tragedy of apartheid; an extreme form of the caste system where mankind was segregated on the sole basis of skin colour.
There is a torture scene in the book which reveals the extent a prisoner reveals depending on the degree of torture. He gets tortured so much that inthe end, he loses his mind and starts telling stories.
Only Tom Sharpe could write a book so funny you are giggling all through it but also so powerful at making you understand how apartheid really worked. All of his works should rank among the best in the field of comedy; this one should be also recommended to political science students.

An Unrestratined Comic Pummeling of the RSA, 25 Jan 2005
If you're ever in the mood for a hugely over-the-top farce about apartheid-era South Africa, well, this is the book for you. Sharpe spent a decade there before being deported as a subversive, and after reading this unrestrained comic pummeling of the RSA, one can only wonder why it took the authorities so long to give him the boot. Indeed authority is target number one in this fast-paced story set in the small city of Piemburg. It all starts when an elderly semi-aristocratic Englishwoman calls the police to report that she's shot her Zulu cook. Refusing police Kommandant van Heerden's best attempts to cover up the matter, she reveals that the cook was also her lover, which so appalls him that he immediately declares a state of emergency and mobilizes the entire police force. And so begins a massive comedy of errors, in which a "Kaffir-Killer" Konstabel Els plays a large role, as does the slimy Luitenant Veerkamp, and matters take a turn for the utterly bizarre, as rubber fetishes, bondage, a drunken bishop, porno films, cross dressing, and penile novocain injections are all introduced to the plot. As one might surmise from such a litany, the plot spins ever more wildly out of control until events come to a head at--appropriately enough--the insane asylum. All the antics are intermittently funny, and it's somewhat refreshing to see the horrors of apartheid treated with rather less than the usual gravitas. Worth a read if you've got a special interest in South Africa or a soft spot for broad farce, otherwise not all that noteworthy.

Murderously Funny!!, 30 Aug 2004
Riotous Assembly is a hysterically funny satire, set in the mid 20th Century South Africa.
Sharpe has taken aspects of the South African police force, which would otherwise be of serious matter and turned it into a witty and enjoyable insight into the apartheid era.
Unique and quirky characters contribute to a twisting and intriguing plot, which will make your head spin.
Even if the subject matter does not appeal to all, Sharpe's savagely hillarious approach will make you laugh out loud.

Riotous Assembly, 07 Nov 2003
This book should carry a health warning! There were times during the reading of this book that I laughed so much I could hardly breathe. It is Tom Sharpe at his best and the book is laced with his well known brand of humour and ridiculous though somehow believable plots! The setting has since been superceeded but I don't think it detracts from the book in anyway. Not for the faint hearted or easily offended!

As good as the book, 26 Jul 2003
I read the book in my teenage years and all the action then is brought to life with these tapes.

Simon Callow reads it brillantly; his accents are great; he sets the scenes well and none of the swearing is removed - which would spoil it.

I think this is his best book by far and I recomend reading the book or listening to the tapes.

Probably not for the politicaly correct!

thigh slappingly hilarious, 09 Jun 2007
Henry Wilt hasn't been promoted in ten years of work in further education. He is also down trodden somewhat by his wife Eva... or so it seems. Then the pair go to some pseudo intellectuals party (the Pringsheims) and all hell breaks loose after the hostess sets Wilt up in a compromising position with an inflatable doll after Wilt refuses to have sex with her. Following the discovery by Eva she buggers off with the Pringsheims leaving Henry to his increasingly warped thoughts. Soon he hatches a plan murder Eva at the risk of him being made to look a fool over the doll furore... this feeling is fuelled when Eva posts him another doll. Wilt decides to use it in place of Eva in a dummy murder run dumping it down a shaft at the tech where he works. Then when the builders are about to fill the hole they spot the doll and a hilarious story ensues. A must read!

Simply HIlarious, 29 Apr 2007
This is the funniest book I have ever read, hands down. If you have never laughed out loud at a book before, read this. You WILL be rolling around, laughing out loud like an idiot!
Tom Sharpe makes comic genius look like something that can be learned at a run-down Further Education college. Sadly it can't.

Superb!, 01 Jun 2005
The funniest book of all time! I was in hospital with a severe throat infection when I read it. It was agony to swallow or talk, let alone laugh. But after less than 20 pages the nurses has to take it off me as I was waking up the whole ward. Next day, I fell out of bed when I came to the bit about the greenhouse - the drip torn out of my arm. I was released from hospital 2 days later.

Hillarious!!!, 08 Apr 2005
Absolutely amazing! I bought this book when I was about to travel and I could not put it down!! Amazing British humour! Tom Sharpe is just excellent!

Wilt by Tom Sharpe, 09 Dec 2003
I first read this book some twenty years ago on a train to London about to embark on my career in Higher Education. For the first time in my life I laughed out loud at a book. I sat on the train in public and could not help laughing at nearly every page, until tears streamed down my face. Tom Sharpes sartorial humour had not been surpassed since. Plumbers four, blow up dolls and further educationalists have never been the same since. Hugely funny.

Spoof at apartheid, 29 Apr 2007
Tom Sharpe's spoof at apartheid is brilliantly written and its comical sense of way also exposes the tragedy of apartheid; an extreme form of the caste system where mankind was segregated on the sole basis of skin colour.
There is a torture scene in the book which reveals the extent a prisoner reveals depending on the degree of torture. He gets tortured so much that inthe end, he loses his mind and starts telling stories.
Only Tom Sharpe could write a book so funny you are giggling all through it but also so powerful at making you understand how apartheid really worked. All of his works should rank among the best in the field of comedy; this one should be also recommended to political science students.

An Unrestratined Comic Pummeling of the RSA, 25 Jan 2005
If you're ever in the mood for a hugely over-the-top farce about apartheid-era South Africa, well, this is the book for you. Sharpe spent a decade there before being deported as a subversive, and after reading this unrestrained comic pummeling of the RSA, one can only wonder why it took the authorities so long to give him the boot. Indeed authority is target number one in this fast-paced story set in the small city of Piemburg. It all starts when an elderly semi-aristocratic Englishwoman calls the police to report that she's shot her Zulu cook. Refusing police Kommandant van Heerden's best attempts to cover up the matter, she reveals that the cook was also her lover, which so appalls him that he immediately declares a state of emergency and mobilizes the entire police force. And so begins a massive comedy of errors, in which a "Kaffir-Killer" Konstabel Els plays a large role, as does the slimy Luitenant Veerkamp, and matters take a turn for the utterly bizarre, as rubber fetishes, bondage, a drunken bishop, porno films, cross dressing, and penile novocain injections are all introduced to the plot. As one might surmise from such a litany, the plot spins ever more wildly out of control until events come to a head at--appropriately enough--the insane asylum. All the antics are intermittently funny, and it's somewhat refreshing to see the horrors of apartheid treated with rather less than the usual gravitas. Worth a read if you've got a special interest in South Africa or a soft spot for broad farce, otherwise not all that noteworthy.

Murderously Funny!!, 30 Aug 2004
Riotous Assembly is a hysterically funny satire, set in the mid 20th Century South Africa.
Sharpe has taken aspects of the South African police force, which would otherwise be of serious matter and turned it into a witty and enjoyable insight into the apartheid era.
Unique and quirky characters contribute to a twisting and intriguing plot, which will make your head spin.
Even if the subject matter does not appeal to all, Sharpe's savagely hillarious approach will make you laugh out loud.

Riotous Assembly, 07 Nov 2003
This book should carry a health warning! There were times during the reading of this book that I laughed so much I could hardly breathe. It is Tom Sharpe at his best and the book is laced with his well known brand of humour and ridiculous though somehow believable plots! The setting has since been superceeded but I don't think it detracts from the book in anyway. Not for the faint hearted or easily offended!

As good as the book, 26 Jul 2003
I read the book in my teenage years and all the action then is brought to life with these tapes.

Simon Callow reads it brillantly; his accents are great; he sets the scenes well and none of the swearing is removed - which would spoil it.

I think this is his best book by far and I recomend reading the book or listening to the tapes.

Probably not for the politicaly correct!

True to Northumberland!, 12 Nov 2008
I live very near to where Tom Sharpe sets this comic-Gothic extravaganza. Somewhat alarmingly, it is 'true' to the people who live in the area. The bleak, stark nature of both the countryside and, those characters that lived here during the 1960's and early 70's, is frighteningly accurate. They abide here still; but, due to the influence of television, 'in-comers' and a thin veneer of civilisation, they are not so readily apparent...but, just you dare to scratch the surface!

An old friend of mine recalls, as a young shepherd lad working way-up in the hills, he once encountered a lone 'walker' with whom he chatted for an hour. The 'walker' questioned him about local 'characters' and traditions. Said friend, Gordon, regaled him with various stories set in and around the Elsdon area ('England's unfinished nook')which appeared to delight the 'walker' and he, in turn, asked many, and searching questions.

The 'walker' also asked about the peculiar nature of our local reservoirs and water-courses, which are extensive and architecturally intriguing. He appeared to know rather more than did Gordon, to whom they were merely an accepted feature and seldom remarked upon.

Gordon, a natural story-teller, musician and artist; tall, well-built and generally something of an 'imposing' figure alround, is convinced that the man with whom he spent an idle hour, was indeed Tom Sharpe.....he further believes that he was the model for Sharpe's central character!

The foot-note to which being, Gordon so enjoyed this unexpected diversion from his otherwise lonely existence and, the intentness of his 'audience', that it determined for him another 'future' - he became a most gifted teacher.





Disappointed, 22 Aug 2008
I have loved and enjoyed all the Wilt books and thought this was another one just as good..wrong...!
It started off OK but very quickly went from amusing to really OTT verging on stupid and not like Wilt at all. I can't understand all the readers who found it funny and amusing....the songs and the poetry were OK once around but got to be boring very quickly..definitely wouldn't recommend it.

One Third Extra Hound per Pound, 23 Jul 2008
Tom Sharpe was born in London in 1928. He is perhaps best known for "Porterhouse Blue" and his Wilt series, both of which have been adapted for television. "The Throwback" is one of his standalone novels.

Lockhart Flawse has had a rather unusual upbringing. He was born in September 1956, in the shadow of a stone wall after his mother was thrown from her horse. Although he came through the labour alive - though, thanks to a patch of nettles, not entirely unscathed - his mother unfortunately didn't. This upset his grandfather, Edwin, somewhat - more so that she wasn't married and had steadfastly refused to name the boy's father. Lockhart was raised and educated entirely on his grandfather's estate. However, the lack of a birth certificate meant he didn't officially exist - his grandfather says he'll only register him when he knows who the father is. The education he received ensured he was an expert shot with excellent mental arithmetic and a high degree of fluency in Urdu, he knows somewhat less about human reproduction than his mother did.

Flawse the Elder is not an admirable character - it's entirely possible he was a close relation of Monty Burns. (He suffers from a nagging suspicion that he might be the Lockhart's father, as well as his grandfather - he's not entirely certain than a drunken encounter with the housekeeper wasn't a drunken encounter with someone else entirely). Unsurprisingly, he suffers from an acute superiority complex, enjoys hunting, fishing and shooting and - although he acknowledges that sex necessary for procreation - also takes the view that it's generally disgusting. However, when it comes to sex, he'll grasp every available opportunity to be disgusted.

Although Lockhart has had a very sheltered life, things change dramatically when he and his grandfather take a cruise. On-board, they meet the stunningly beautiful Jessica Sandicott and her widowed mother - naturally, the young couple fall head over heels in love and are swiftly married by the ship's captain. (This happens not only with the approval of their aged relatives, but practically at the insistence - they're both desperate to get rid of their dependents). However, as part of the negotiations, Edwin and Jessica's mother also wind up married. Mrs Sandicott is delighted, believing her new husband to be not only exceptionally rich, but also close to death. Unfortunately, it hasn't crossed her mind that she might be marrying someone at least as devious as she is : Edwin knows exactly what she is up to, and views her only as a housekeeper who will never need paying. On their return to England, the games the older pair play have all sorts of implications for the younger pair...and things turn a little dangerous when Edwin draws up his will. Luckily for the young couple, Lockhart proves to be every bit as devious as his grandfather. He can also rely on the help of Dodds, the gamekeeper at Flawse Hall, and two of his grandfather's old acquaintances: Dr Magrew and Mr Bullstrode, his solicitor.

A fast moving and occasionally daft book, though certainly funny and a very enjoyable read.

Brillant, 08 Mar 2008
I read this book for the first time on a train journey. I think the people in the place thought I was gone mad I laughed so much. When I came home, I gave the book to my late father who must have read it every year until his death, he actually broke the spine of the book. I consider the scene when the doctor asks him about Lockhart his sexual relations with his wife the funniest I have ever read. Buy the Book and weap!!!

Tom Sharpe - The throwback, 24 Jan 2008
I first read this book many years ago, and continue to re-visit it to this day - it is the funniest novel I have ever read.
The first time I read the chapter about the old army colonel & the french letter I was sitting on the train travelling home, and got very odd looks from my fellow commuters - you cannot help but laugh out loud at the absurd but plausible scene that unfolds in the Colonels bedroom.
On lending the book to family members & friends, it has never returned, causing me to be on my 8th or 9th copy - it is that popular.
I don't think anything Tom Sharpe has done before or since live up to the quality of this book - although some come close.

thigh slappingly hilarious, 09 Jun 2007
Henry Wilt hasn't been promoted in ten years of work in further education. He is also down trodden somewhat by his wife Eva... or so it seems. Then the pair go to some pseudo intellectuals party (the Pringsheims) and all hell breaks loose after the hostess sets Wilt up in a compromising position with an inflatable doll after Wilt refuses to have sex with her. Following the discovery by Eva she buggers off with the Pringsheims leaving Henry to his increasingly warped thoughts. Soon he hatches a plan murder Eva at the risk of him being made to look a fool over the doll furore... this feeling is fuelled when Eva posts him another doll. Wilt decides to use it in place of Eva in a dummy murder run dumping it down a shaft at the tech where he works. Then when the builders are about to fill the hole they spot the doll and a hilarious story ensues. A must read!

Simply HIlarious, 29 Apr 2007
This is the funniest book I have ever read, hands down. If you have never laughed out loud at a book before, read this. You WILL be rolling around, laughing out loud like an idiot!
Tom Sharpe makes comic genius look like something that can be learned at a run-down Further Education college. Sadly it can't.

Superb!, 01 Jun 2005
The funniest book of all time! I was in hospital with a severe throat infection when I read it. It was agony to swallow or talk, let alone laugh. But after less than 20 pages the nurses has to take it off me as I was waking up the whole ward. Next day, I fell out of bed when I came to the bit about the greenhouse - the drip torn out of my arm. I was released from hospital 2 days later.

Hillarious!!!, 08 Apr 2005
Absolutely amazing! I bought this book when I was about to travel and I could not put it down!! Amazing British humour! Tom Sharpe is just excellent!

Wilt by Tom Sharpe, 09 Dec 2003
I first read this book some twenty years ago on a train to London about to embark on my career in Higher Education. For the first time in my life I laughed out loud at a book. I sat on the train in public and could not help laughing at nearly every page, until tears streamed down my face. Tom Sharpes sartorial humour had not been surpassed since. Plumbers four, blow up dolls and further educationalists have never been the same since. Hugely funny.

Spoof at apartheid, 29 Apr 2007
Tom Sharpe's spoof at apartheid is brilliantly written and its comical sense of way also exposes the tragedy of apartheid; an extreme form of the caste system where mankind was segregated on the sole basis of skin colour.
There is a torture scene in the book which reveals the extent a prisoner reveals depending on the degree of torture. He gets tortured so much that inthe end, he loses his mind and starts telling stories.
Only Tom Sharpe could write a book so funny you are giggling all through it but also so powerful at making you understand how apartheid really worked. All of his works should rank among the best in the field of comedy; this one should be also recommended to political science students.

An Unrestratined Comic Pummeling of the RSA, 25 Jan 2005
If you're ever in the mood for a hugely over-the-top farce about apartheid-era South Africa, well, this is the book for you. Sharpe spent a decade there before being deported as a subversive, and after reading this unrestrained comic pummeling of the RSA, one can only wonder why it took the authorities so long to give him the boot. Indeed authority is target number one in this fast-paced story set in the small city of Piemburg. It all starts when an elderly semi-aristocratic Englishwoman calls the police to report that she's shot her Zulu cook. Refusing police Kommandant van Heerden's best attempts to cover up the matter, she reveals that the cook was also her lover, which so appalls him that he immediately declares a state of emergency and mobilizes the entire police force. And so begins a massive comedy of errors, in which a "Kaffir-Killer" Konstabel Els plays a large role, as does the slimy Luitenant Veerkamp, and matters take a turn for the utterly bizarre, as rubber fetishes, bondage, a drunken bishop, porno films, cross dressing, and penile novocain injections are all introduced to the plot. As one might surmise from such a litany, the plot spins ever more wildly out of control until events come to a head at--appropriately enough--the insane asylum. All the antics are intermittently funny, and it's somewhat refreshing to see the horrors of apartheid treated with rather less than the usual gravitas. Worth a read if you've got a special interest in South Africa or a soft spot for broad farce, otherwise not all that noteworthy.

Murderously Funny!!, 30 Aug 2004
Riotous Assembly is a hysterically funny satire, set in the mid 20th Century South Africa.
Sharpe has taken aspects of the South African police force, which would otherwise be of serious matter and turned it into a witty and enjoyable insight into the apartheid era.
Unique and quirky characters contribute to a twisting and intriguing plot, which will make your head spin.
Even if the subject matter does not appeal to all, Sharpe's savagely hillarious approach will make you laugh out loud.

Riotous Assembly, 07 Nov 2003
This book should carry a health warning! There were times during the reading of this book that I laughed so much I could hardly breathe. It is Tom Sharpe at his best and the book is laced with his well known brand of humour and ridiculous though somehow believable plots! The setting has since been superceeded but I don't think it detracts from the book in anyway. Not for the faint hearted or easily offended!

As good as the book, 26 Jul 2003
I read the book in my teenage years and all the action then is brought to life with these tapes.

Simon Callow reads it brillantly; his accents are great; he sets the scenes well and none of the swearing is removed - which would spoil it.

I think this is his best book by far and I recomend reading the book or listening to the tapes.

Probably not for the politicaly correct!

True to Northumberland!, 12 Nov 2008
I live very near to where Tom Sharpe sets this comic-Gothic extravaganza. Somewhat alarmingly, it is 'true' to the people who live in the area. The bleak, stark nature of both the countryside and, those characters that lived here during the 1960's and early 70's, is frighteningly accurate. They abide here still; but, due to the influence of television, 'in-comers' and a thin veneer of civilisation, they are not so readily apparent...but, just you dare to scratch the surface!

An old friend of mine recalls, as a young shepherd lad working way-up in the hills, he once encountered a lone 'walker' with whom he chatted for an hour. The 'walker' questioned him about local 'characters' and traditions. Said friend, Gordon, regaled him with various stories set in and around the Elsdon area ('England's unfinished nook')which appeared to delight the 'walker' and he, in turn, asked many, and searching questions.

The 'walker' also asked about the peculiar nature of our local reservoirs and water-courses, which are extensive and architecturally intriguing. He appeared to know rather more than did Gordon, to whom they were merely an accepted feature and seldom remarked upon.

Gordon, a natural story-teller, musician and artist; tall, well-built and generally something of an 'imposing' figure alround, is convinced that the man with whom he spent an idle hour, was indeed Tom Sharpe.....he further believes that he was the model for Sharpe's central character!

The foot-note to which being, Gordon so enjoyed this unexpected diversion from his otherwise lonely existence and, the intentness of his 'audience', that it determined for him another 'future' - he became a most gifted teacher.





Disappointed, 22 Aug 2008
I have loved and enjoyed all the Wilt books and thought this was another one just as good..wrong...!
It started off OK but very quickly went from amusing to really OTT verging on stupid and not like Wilt at all. I can't understand all the readers who found it funny and amusing....the songs and the poetry were OK once around but got to be boring very quickly..definitely wouldn't recommend it.

One Third Extra Hound per Pound, 23 Jul 2008
Tom Sharpe was born in London in 1928. He is perhaps best known for "Porterhouse Blue" and his Wilt series, both of which have been adapted for television. "The Throwback" is one of his standalone novels.

Lockhart Flawse has had a rather unusual upbringing. He was born in September 1956, in the shadow of a stone wall after his mother was thrown from her horse. Although he came through the labour alive - though, thanks to a patch of nettles, not entirely unscathed - his mother unfortunately didn't. This upset his grandfather, Edwin, somewhat - more so that she wasn't married and had steadfastly refused to name the boy's father. Lockhart was raised and educated entirely on his grandfather's estate. However, the lack of a birth certificate meant he didn't officially exist - his grandfather says he'll only register him when he knows who the father is. The education he received ensured he was an expert shot with excellent mental arithmetic and a high degree of fluency in Urdu, he knows somewhat less about human reproduction than his mother did.

Flawse the Elder is not an admirable character - it's entirely possible he was a close relation of Monty Burns. (He suffers from a nagging suspicion that he might be the Lockhart's father, as well as his grandfather - he's not entirely certain than a drunken encounter with the housekeeper wasn't a drunken encounter with someone else entirely). Unsurprisingly, he suffers from an acute superiority complex, enjoys hunting, fishing and shooting and - although he acknowledges that sex necessary for procreation - also takes the view that it's generally disgusting. However, when it comes to sex, he'll grasp every available opportunity to be disgusted.

Although Lockhart has had a very sheltered life, things change dramatically when he and his grandfather take a cruise. On-board, they meet the stunningly beautiful Jessica Sandicott and her widowed mother - naturally, the young couple fall head over heels in love and are swiftly married by the ship's captain. (This happens not only with the approval of their aged relatives, but practically at the insistence - they're both desperate to get rid of their dependents). However, as part of the negotiations, Edwin and Jessica's mother also wind up married. Mrs Sandicott is delighted, believing her new husband to be not only exceptionally rich, but also close to death. Unfortunately, it hasn't crossed her mind that she might be marrying someone at least as devious as she is : Edwin knows exactly what she is up to, and views her only as a housekeeper who will never need paying. On their return to England, the games the older pair play have all sorts of implications for the younger pair...and things turn a little dangerous when Edwin draws up his will. Luckily for the young couple, Lockhart proves to be every bit as devious as his grandfather. He can also rely on the help of Dodds, the gamekeeper at Flawse Hall, and two of his grandfather's old acquaintances: Dr Magrew and Mr Bullstrode, his solicitor.

A fast moving and occasionally daft book, though certainly funny and a very enjoyable read.

Brillant, 08 Mar 2008
I read this book for the first time on a train journey. I think the people in the place thought I was gone mad I laughed so much. When I came home, I gave the book to my late father who must have read it every year until his death, he actually broke the spine of the book. I consider the scene when the doctor asks him about Lockhart his sexual relations with his wife the funniest I have ever read. Buy the Book and weap!!!

Tom Sharpe - The throwback, 24 Jan 2008
I first read this book many years ago, and continue to re-visit it to this day - it is the funniest novel I have ever read.
The first time I read the chapter about the old army colonel & the french letter I was sitting on the train travelling home, and got very odd looks from my fellow commuters - you cannot help but laugh out loud at the absurd but plausible scene that unfolds in the Colonels bedroom.
On lending the book to family members & friends, it has never returned, causing me to be on my 8th or 9th copy - it is that popular.
I don't think anything Tom Sharpe has done before or since live up to the quality of this book - although some come close.

worth ten stars, 26 Jul 2007
he did tail off in his later books,but this for me is the high point.no clues to the plot,just get it and enjoy.dont read it with young kids about,first they will think your gone mad with all the laughter,second are you really going to tell them about the porg that came out of the oven?good clean dirty fun.a masterpiece

Tom Sharpe - A Genius , 07 Oct 2006
One of the very few authors with the talent to make you laugh out loud, book after book. I guarantee that once you have read one of his novels, you will be frantically searching for everything else he has ever written. His South African based novels are very humourous but for me, it is his take on the English Eccentric that never fails to raise a laugh. His books Vintage Stuff and Ancestral Vices are particular favourites.

Top DRAWER, 11 Aug 2006
The king of satire.

There is no funnier writer today.

Please tell me if there is as I have read all his collection

A joy.

A fantastic read, 24 Oct 2003
A great book, nice to see it back for another edition. Shame it's in a larger format, won't fit in my pocket now!

Typical Sharpe... no bad thing!, 30 Aug 2003
I remember reading Ancestral Vices for the first time, on a train. And did I laugh? I howled, I wept, I was a helpless, quivering jelly for minutes at a time. The other passengers probably assumed I was having a fit or seizure.

In terms of plotline and characterisation, it is typical of Sharpe: the English class system is torn apart like tissue paper in a vicious social satire; the male characters are unsympathetic pedantics and deviants; women are often hideous gorgons. Yet there are two qualities that also come out in a Sharpe novel - a quaint love of the fault-ridden society with its appalling mores, iniquities and moral dilemmas, and a darker subtext presenting the evils of meddling with that society.

Like few other writers I know, Tom Sharpe has an unerring eye for the ridiculous, and a rapier wit to exploit a farce to its most extreme potential. Some people might call it juvenile, schoolboy humour (including Sharpe himself), but that undersells his skill as a writer.

thigh slappingly hilarious, 09 Jun 2007
Henry Wilt hasn't been promoted in ten years of work in further education. He is also down trodden somewhat by his wife Eva... or so it seems. Then the pair go to some pseudo intellectuals party (the Pringsheims) and all hell breaks loose after the hostess sets Wilt up in a compromising position with an inflatable doll after Wilt refuses to have sex with her. Following the discovery by Eva she buggers off with the Pringsheims leaving Henry to his increasingly warped thoughts. Soon he hatches a plan murder Eva at the risk of him being made to look a fool over the doll furore... this feeling is fuelled when Eva posts him another doll. Wilt decides to use it in place of Eva in a dummy murder run dumping it down a shaft at the tech where he works. Then when the builders are about to fill the hole they spot the doll and a hilarious story ensues. A must read!

Simply HIlarious, 29 Apr 2007
This is the funniest book I have ever read, hands down. If you have never laughed out loud at a book before, read this. You WILL be rolling around, laughing out loud like an idiot!
Tom Sharpe makes comic genius look like something that can be learned at a run-down Further Education college. Sadly it can't.

Superb!, 01 Jun 2005
The funniest book of all time! I was in hospital with a severe throat infection when I read it. It was agony to swallow or talk, let alone laugh. But after less than 20 pages the nurses has to take it off me as I was waking up the whole ward. Next day, I fell out of bed when I came to the bit about the greenhouse - the drip torn out of my arm. I was released from hospital 2 days later.

Hillarious!!!, 08 Apr 2005
Absolutely amazing! I bought this book when I was about to travel and I could not put it down!! Amazing British humour! Tom Sharpe is just excellent!

Wilt by Tom Sharpe, 09 Dec 2003
I first read this book some twenty years ago on a train to London about to embark on my career in Higher Education. For the first time in my life I laughed out loud at a book. I sat on the train in public and could not help laughing at nearly every page, until tears streamed down my face. Tom Sharpes sartorial humour had not been surpassed since. Plumbers four, blow up dolls and further educationalists have never been the same since. Hugely funny.

Spoof at apartheid, 29 Apr 2007
Tom Sharpe's spoof at apartheid is brilliantly written and its comical sense of way also exposes the tragedy of apartheid; an extreme form of the caste system where mankind was segregated on the sole basis of skin colour.
There is a torture scene in the book which reveals the extent a prisoner reveals depending on the degree of torture. He gets tortured so much that inthe end, he loses his mind and starts telling stories.
Only Tom Sharpe could write a book so funny you are giggling all through it but also so powerful at making you understand how apartheid really worked. All of his works should rank among the best in the field of comedy; this one should be also recommended to political science students.

An Unrestratined Comic Pummeling of the RSA, 25 Jan 2005
If you're ever in the mood for a hugely over-the-top farce about apartheid-era South Africa, well, this is the book for you. Sharpe spent a decade there before being deported as a subversive, and after reading this unrestrained comic pummeling of the RSA, one can only wonder why it took the authorities so long to give him the boot. Indeed authority is target number one in this fast-paced story set in the small city of Piemburg. It all starts when an elderly semi-aristocratic Englishwoman calls the police to report that she's shot her Zulu cook. Refusing police Kommandant van Heerden's best attempts to cover up the matter, she reveals that the cook was also her lover, which so appalls him that he immediately declares a state of emergency and mobilizes the entire police force. And so begins a massive comedy of errors, in which a "Kaffir-Killer" Konstabel Els plays a large role, as does the slimy Luitenant Veerkamp, and matters take a turn for the utterly bizarre, as rubber fetishes, bondage, a drunken bishop, porno films, cross dressing, and penile novocain injections are all introduced to the plot. As one might surmise from such a litany, the plot spins ever more wildly out of control until events come to a head at--appropriately enough--the insane asylum. All the antics are intermittently funny, and it's somewhat refreshing to see the horrors of apartheid treated with rather less than the usual gravitas. Worth a read if you've got a special interest in South Africa or a soft spot for broad farce, otherwise not all that noteworthy.

Murderously Funny!!, 30 Aug 2004
Riotous Assembly is a hysterically funny satire, set in the mid 20th Century South Africa.
Sharpe has taken aspects of the South African police force, which would otherwise be of serious matter and turned it into a witty and enjoyable insight into the apartheid era.
Unique and quirky characters contribute to a twisting and intriguing plot, which will make your head spin.
Even if the subject matter does not appeal to all, Sharpe's savagely hillarious approach will make you laugh out loud.

Riotous Assembly, 07 Nov 2003
This book should carry a health warning! There were times during the reading of this book that I laughed so much I could hardly breathe. It is Tom Sharpe at his best and the book is laced with his well known brand of humour and ridiculous though somehow believable plots! The setting has since been superceeded but I don't think it detracts from the book in anyway. Not for the faint hearted or easily offended!

As good as the book, 26 Jul 2003
I read the book in my teenage years and all the action then is brought to life with these tapes.

Simon Callow reads it brillantly; his accents are great; he sets the scenes well and none of the swearing is removed - which would spoil it.

I think this is his best book by far and I recomend reading the book or listening to the tapes.

Probably not for the politicaly correct!

True to Northumberland!, 12 Nov 2008
I live very near to where Tom Sharpe sets this comic-Gothic extravaganza. Somewhat alarmingly, it is 'true' to the people who live in the area. The bleak, stark nature of both the countryside and, those characters that lived here during the 1960's and early 70's, is frighteningly accurate. They abide here still; but, due to the influence of television, 'in-comers' and a thin veneer of civilisation, they are not so readily apparent...but, just you dare to scratch the surface!

An old friend of mine recalls, as a young shepherd lad working way-up in the hills, he once encountered a lone 'walker' with whom he chatted for an hour. The 'walker' questioned him about local 'characters' and traditions. Said friend, Gordon, regaled him with various stories set in and around the Elsdon area ('England's unfinished nook')which appeared to delight the 'walker' and he, in turn, asked many, and searching questions.

The 'walker' also asked about the peculiar nature of our local reservoirs and water-courses, which are extensive and architecturally intriguing. He appeared to know rather more than did Gordon, to whom they were merely an accepted feature and seldom remarked upon.

Gordon, a natural story-teller, musician and artist; tall, well-built and generally something of an 'imposing' figure alround, is convinced that the man with whom he spent an idle hour, was indeed Tom Sharpe.....he further believes that he was the model for Sharpe's central character!

The foot-note to which being, Gordon so enjoyed this unexpected diversion from his otherwise lonely existence and, the intentness of his 'audience', that it determined for him another 'future' - he became a most gifted teacher.





Disappointed, 22 Aug 2008
I have loved and enjoyed all the Wilt books and thought this was another one just as good..wrong...!
It started off OK but very quickly went from amusing to really OTT verging on stupid and not like Wilt at all. I can't understand all the readers who found it funny and amusing....the songs and the poetry were OK once around but got to be boring very quickly..definitely wouldn't recommend it.

One Third Extra Hound per Pound, 23 Jul 2008
Tom Sharpe was born in London in 1928. He is perhaps best known for "Porterhouse Blue" and his Wilt series, both of which have been adapted for television. "The Throwback" is one of his standalone novels.

Lockhart Flawse has had a rather unusual upbringing. He was born in September 1956, in the shadow of a stone wall after his mother was thrown from her horse. Although he came through the labour alive - though, thanks to a patch of nettles, not entirely unscathed - his mother unfortunately didn't. This upset his grandfather, Edwin, somewhat - more so that she wasn't married and had steadfastly refused to name the boy's father. Lockhart was raised and educated entirely on his grandfather's estate. However, the lack of a birth certificate meant he didn't officially exist - his grandfather says he'll only register him when he knows who the father is. The education he received ensured he was an expert shot with excellent mental arithmetic and a high degree of fluency in Urdu, he knows somewhat less about human reproduction than his mother did.

Flawse the Elder is not an admirable character - it's entirely possible he was a close relation of Monty Burns. (He suffers from a nagging suspicion that he might be the Lockhart's father, as well as his grandfather - he's not entirely certain than a drunken encounter with the housekeeper wasn't a drunken encounter with someone else entirely). Unsurprisingly, he suffers from an acute superiority complex, enjoys hunting, fishing and shooting and - although he acknowledges that sex necessary for procreation - also takes the view that it's generally disgusting. However, when it comes to sex, he'll grasp every available opportunity to be disgusted.

Although Lockhart has had a very sheltered life, things change dramatically when he and his grandfather take a cruise. On-board, they meet the stunningly beautiful Jessica Sandicott and her widowed mother - naturally, the young couple fall head over heels in love and are swiftly married by the ship's captain. (This happens not only with the approval of their aged relatives, but practically at the insistence - they're both desperate to get rid of their dependents). However, as part of the negotiations, Edwin and Jessica's mother also wind up married. Mrs Sandicott is delighted, believing her new husband to be not only exceptionally rich, but also close to death. Unfortunately, it hasn't crossed her mind that she might be marrying someone at least as devious as she is : Edwin knows exactly what she is up to, and views her only as a housekeeper who will never need paying. On their return to England, the games the older pair play have all sorts of implications for the younger pair...and things turn a little dangerous when Edwin draws up his will. Luckily for the young couple, Lockhart proves to be every bit as devious as his grandfather. He can also rely on the help of Dodds, the gamekeeper at Flawse Hall, and two of his grandfather's old acquaintances: Dr Magrew and Mr Bullstrode, his solicitor.

A fast moving and occasionally daft book, though certainly funny and a very enjoyable read.

Brillant, 08 Mar 2008
I read this book for the first time on a train journey. I think the people in the place thought I was gone mad I laughed so much. When I came home, I gave the book to my late father who must have read it every year until his death, he actually broke the spine of the book. I consider the scene when the doctor asks him about Lockhart his sexual relations with his wife the funniest I have ever read. Buy the Book and weap!!!

Tom Sharpe - The throwback, 24 Jan 2008
I first read this book many years ago, and continue to re-visit it to this day - it is the funniest novel I have ever read.
The first time I read the chapter about the old army colonel & the french letter I was sitting on the train travelling home, and got very odd looks from my fellow commuters - you cannot help but laugh out loud at the absurd but plausible scene that unfolds in the Colonels bedroom.
On lending the book to family members & friends, it has never returned, causing me to be on my 8th or 9th copy - it is that popular.
I don't think anything Tom Sharpe has done before or since live up to the quality of this book - although some come close.

worth ten stars, 26 Jul 2007
he did tail off in his later books,but this for me is the high point.no clues to the plot,just get it and enjoy.dont read it with young kids about,first they will think your gone mad with all the laughter,second are you really going to tell them about the porg that came out of the oven?good clean dirty fun.a masterpiece

Tom Sharpe - A Genius , 07 Oct 2006
One of the very few authors with the talent to make you laugh out loud, book after book. I guarantee that once you have read one of his novels, you will be frantically searching for everything else he has ever written. His South African based novels are very humourous but for me, it is his take on the English Eccentric that never fails to raise a laugh. His books Vintage Stuff and Ancestral Vices are particular favourites.

Top DRAWER, 11 Aug 2006
The king of satire.

There is no funnier writer today.

Please tell me if there is as I have read all his collection

A joy.

A fantastic read, 24 Oct 2003
A great book, nice to see it back for another edition. Shame it's in a larger format, won't fit in my pocket now!

Typical Sharpe... no bad thing!, 30 Aug 2003
I remember reading Ancestral Vices for the first time, on a train. And did I laugh? I howled, I wept, I was a helpless, quivering jelly for minutes at a time. The other passengers probably assumed I was having a fit or seizure.

In terms of plotline and characterisation, it is typical of Sharpe: the English class system is torn apart like tissue paper in a vicious social satire; the male characters are unsympathetic pedantics and deviants; women are often hideous gorgons. Yet there are two qualities that also come out in a Sharpe novel - a quaint love of the fault-ridden society with its appalling mores, iniquities and moral dilemmas, and a darker subtext presenting the evils of meddling with that society.

Like few other writers I know, Tom Sharpe has an unerring eye for the ridiculous, and a rapier wit to exploit a farce to its most extreme potential. Some people might call it juvenile, schoolboy humour (including Sharpe himself), but that undersells his skill as a writer.

march of time may hinder, 26 Jul 2007
this an extremely fun well written tom sharpe classic.will have you laughing out loud at the old south africa.and the old empire days.this might hinder some readers with the humour but the vivid story telling of mr sharpe this shouldn`t be to much of a problem.i found this book in the 80`s and have it loads of times since.with the start off in Riotous Assembly and the great shoot out this ties things up neatly.
it is great fun

The funniest book i've ever read., 23 May 2004
Let's cut to the chase, this book along with Riotous assembly are without doubt the funniest books i've ever read.
Unlike the other Sharpe books (which are nowhere as good i hasten to add) you will find that once you've started you cannot put them down.My wife,i'm sure, contemplated having me admitted under the mental health act, such were my outbursts of laughter.
Buy both these books, you will read them again and again.

THe Funniest Book in the world, 25 Jul 2003
I read this book three times in the first week of picking it up and roared with laughter from cover to cover. It has to be the funniest book ever and has converted me to an avid Tom Sharpe fan. Well worth a read and guaranteed to keep you chuckling to yourself even when you're not reading it.

Five Stars, 25 Oct 2001
This is Tom Sharpe's best book by far! The exploding ostrich section and the tests carried out with electrodes are so funny that I couldn't stop laughing.

If you have never read a Tom Sharpe book before, start with this one!

and again for your prediliction..., 21 Jun 2000
The memorable characters of Riotous Asembly return for another dose of Antipodean mayhem, and the joys of apartheid. this time the whole town gets the "treatment" as defined by Konstabel Els zealous actions. To sweeten the mixture this time a psychologist from Auschwitz or Belsen (take your pick) get's to practice her skills - professional and otherwise - upon Konstable Els who didn't get off QUITE so scott-free this time. No wonder the whites handed over the reins! "Vintage" Sharpe!

thigh slappingly hilarious, 09 Jun 2007
Henry Wilt hasn't been promoted in ten years of work in further education. He is also down trodden somewhat by his wife Eva... or so it seems. Then the pair go to some pseudo intellectuals party (the Pringsheims) and all hell breaks loose after the hostess sets Wilt up in a compromising position with an inflatable doll after Wilt refuses to have sex with her. Following the discovery by Eva she buggers off with the Pringsheims leaving Henry to his increasingly warped thoughts. Soon he hatches a plan murder Eva at the risk of him being made to look a fool over the doll furore... this feeling is fuelled when Eva posts him another doll. Wilt decides to use it in place of Eva in a dummy murder run dumping it down a shaft at the tech where he works. Then when the builders are about to fill the hole they spot the doll and a hilarious story ensues. A must read!

Simply HIlarious, 29 Apr 2007
This is the funniest book I have ever read, hands down. If you have never laughed out loud at a book before, read this. You WILL be rolling around, laughing out loud like an idiot!
Tom Sharpe makes comic genius look like something that can be learned at a run-down Further Education college. Sadly it can't.

Superb!, 01 Jun 2005
The funniest book of all time! I was in hospital with a severe throat infection when I read it. It was agony to swallow or talk, let alone laugh. But after less than 20 pages the nurses has to take it off me as I was waking up the whole ward. Next day, I fell out of bed when I came to the bit about the greenhouse - the drip torn out of my arm. I was released from hospital 2 days later.

Hillarious!!!, 08 Apr 2005
Absolutely amazing! I bought this book when I was about to travel and I could not put it down!! Amazing British humour! Tom Sharpe is just excellent!

Wilt by Tom Sharpe, 09 Dec 2003
I first read this book some twenty years ago on a train to London about to embark on my career in Higher Education. For the first time in my life I laughed out loud at a book. I sat on the train in public and could not help laughing at nearly every page, until tears streamed down my face. Tom Sharpes sartorial humour had not been surpassed since. Plumbers four, blow up dolls and further educationalists have never been the same since. Hugely funny.

Spoof at apartheid, 29 Apr 2007
Tom Sharpe's spoof at apartheid is brilliantly written and its comical sense of way also exposes the tragedy of apartheid; an extreme form of the caste system where mankind was segregated on the sole basis of skin colour.
There is a torture scene in the book which reveals the extent a prisoner reveals depending on the degree of torture. He gets tortured so much that inthe end, he loses his mind and starts telling stories.
Only Tom Sharpe could write a book so funny you are giggling all through it but also so powerful at making you understand how apartheid really worked. All of his works should rank among the best in the field of comedy; this one should be also recommended to political science students.

An Unrestratined Comic Pummeling of the RSA, 25 Jan 2005
If you're ever in the mood for a hugely over-the-top farce about apartheid-era South Africa, well, this is the book for you. Sharpe spent a decade there before being deported as a subversive, and after reading this unrestrained comic pummeling of the RSA, one can only wonder why it took the authorities so long to give him the boot. Indeed authority is target number one in this fast-paced story set in the small city of Piemburg. It all starts when an elderly semi-aristocratic Englishwoman calls the police to report that she's shot her Zulu cook. Refusing police Kommandant van Heerden's best attempts to cover up the matter, she reveals that the cook was also her lover, which so appalls him that he immediately declares a state of emergency and mobilizes the entire police force. And so begins a massive comedy of errors, in which a "Kaffir-Killer" Konstabel Els plays a large role, as does the slimy Luitenant Veerkamp, and matters take a turn for the utterly bizarre, as rubber fetishes, bondage, a drunken bishop, porno films, cross dressing, and penile novocain injections are all introduced to the plot. As one might surmise from such a litany, the plot spins ever more wildly out of control until events come to a head at--appropriately enough--the insane asylum. All the antics are intermittently funny, and it's somewhat refreshing to see the horrors of apartheid treated with rather less than the usual gravitas. Worth a read if you've got a special interest in South Africa or a soft spot for broad farce, otherwise not all that noteworthy.

Murderously Funny!!, 30 Aug 2004
Riotous Assembly is a hysterically funny satire, set in the mid 20th Century South Africa.
Sharpe has taken aspects of the South African police force, which would otherwise be of serious matter and turned it into a witty and enjoyable insight into the apartheid era.
Unique and quirky characters contribute to a twisting and intriguing plot, which will make your head spin.
Even if the subject matter does not appeal to all, Sharpe's savagely hillarious approach will make you laugh out loud.

Riotous Assembly, 07 Nov 2003
This book should carry a health warning! There were times during the reading of this book that I laughed so much I could hardly breathe. It is Tom Sharpe at his best and the book is laced with his well known brand of humour and ridiculous though somehow believable plots! The setting has since been superceeded but I don't think it detracts from the book in anyway. Not for the faint hearted or easily offended!

As good as the book, 26 Jul 2003
I read the book in my teenage years and all the action then is brought to life with these tapes.

Simon Callow reads it brillantly; his accents are great; he sets the scenes well and none of the swearing is removed - which would spoil it.

I think this is his best book by far and I recomend reading the book or listening to the tapes.

Probably not for the politicaly correct!

True to Northumberland!, 12 Nov 2008
I live very near to where Tom Sharpe sets this comic-Gothic extravaganza. Somewhat alarmingly, it is 'true' to the people who live in the area. The bleak, stark nature of both the countryside and, those characters that lived here during the 1960's and early 70's, is frighteningly accurate. They abide here still; but, due to the influence of television, 'in-comers' and a thin veneer of civilisation, they are not so readily apparent...but, just you dare to scratch the surface!

An old friend of mine recalls, as a young shepherd lad working way-up in the hills, he once encountered a lone 'walker' with whom he chatted for an hour. The 'walker' questioned him about local 'characters' and traditions. Said friend, Gordon, regaled him with various stories set in and around the Elsdon area ('England's unfinished nook')which appeared to delight the 'walker' and he, in turn, asked many, and searching questions.

The 'walker' also asked about the peculiar nature of our local reservoirs and water-courses, which are extensive and architecturally intriguing. He appeared to know rather more than did Gordon, to whom they were merely an accepted feature and seldom remarked upon.

Gordon, a natural story-teller, musician and artist; tall, well-built and generally something of an 'imposing' figure alround, is convinced that the man with whom he spent an idle hour, was indeed Tom Sharpe.....he further believes that he was the model for Sharpe's central character!

The foot-note to which being, Gordon so enjoyed this unexpected diversion from his otherwise lonely existence and, the intentness of his 'audience', that it determined for him another 'future' - he became a most gifted teacher.





Disappointed, 22 Aug 2008
I have loved and enjoyed all the Wilt books and thought this was another one just as good..wrong...!
It started off OK but very quickly went from amusing to really OTT verging on stupid and not like Wilt at all. I can't understand all the readers who found it funny and amusing....the songs and the poetry were OK once around but got to be boring very quickly..definitely wouldn't recommend it.

One Third Extra Hound per Pound, 23 Jul 2008
Tom Sharpe was born in London in 1928. He is perhaps best known for "Porterhouse Blue" and his Wilt series, both of which have been adapted for television. "The Throwback" is one of his standalone novels.

Lockhart Flawse has had a rather unusual upbringing. He was born in September 1956, in the shadow of a stone wall after his mother was thrown from her horse. Although he came through the labour alive - though, thanks to a patch of nettles, not entirely unscathed - his mother unfortunately didn't. This upset his grandfather, Edwin, somewhat - more so that she wasn't married and had steadfastly refused to name the boy's father. Lockhart was raised and educated entirely on his grandfather's estate. However, the lack of a birth certificate meant he didn't officially exist - his grandfather says he'll only register him when he knows who the father is. The education he received ensured he was an expert shot with excellent mental arithmetic and a high degree of fluency in Urdu, he knows somewhat less about human reproduction than his mother did.

Flawse the Elder is not an admirable character - it's entirely possible he was a close relation of Monty Burns. (He suffers from a nagging suspicion that he might be the Lockhart's father, as well as his grandfather - he's not entirely certain than a drunken encounter with the housekeeper wasn't a drunken encounter with someone else entirely). Unsurprisingly, he suffers from an acute superiority complex, enjoys hunting, fishing and shooting and - although he acknowledges that sex necessary for procreation - also takes the view that it's generally disgusting. However, when it comes to sex, he'll grasp every available opportunity to be disgusted.

Although Lockhart has had a very sheltered life, things change dramatically when he and his grandfather take a cruise. On-board, they meet the stunningly beautiful Jessica Sandicott and her widowed mother - naturally, the young couple fall head over heels in love and are swiftly married by the ship's captain. (This happens not only with the approval of their aged relatives, but practically at the insistence - they're both desperate to get rid of their dependents). However, as part of the negotiations, Edwin and Jessica's mother also wind up married. Mrs Sandicott is delighted, believing her new husband to be not only exceptionally rich, but also close to death. Unfortunately, it hasn't crossed her mind that she might be marrying someone at least as devious as she is : Edwin knows exactly what she is up to, and views her only as a housekeeper who will never need paying. On their return to England, the games the older pair play have all sorts of implications for the younger pair...and things turn a little dangerous when Edwin draws up his will. Luckily for the young couple, Lockhart proves to be every bit as devious as his grandfather. He can also rely on the help of Dodds, the gamekeeper at Flawse Hall, and two of his grandfather's old acquaintances: Dr Magrew and Mr Bullstrode, his solicitor.

A fast moving and occasionally daft book, though certainly funny and a very enjoyable read.

Brillant, 08 Mar 2008
I read this book for the first time on a train journey. I think the people in the place thought I was gone mad I laughed so much. When I came home, I gave the book to my late father who must have read it every year until his death, he actually broke the spine of the book. I consider the scene when the doctor asks him about Lockhart his sexual relations with his wife the funniest I have ever read. Buy the Book and weap!!!

Tom Sharpe - The throwback, 24 Jan 2008
I first read this book many years ago, and continue to re-visit it to this day - it is the funniest novel I have ever read.
The first time I read the chapter about the old army colonel & the french letter I was sitting on the train travelling home, and got very odd looks from my fellow commuters - you cannot help but laugh out loud at the absurd but plausible scene that unfolds in the Colonels bedroom.
On lending the book to family members & friends, it has never returned, causing me to be on my 8th or 9th copy - it is that popular.
I don't think anything Tom Sharpe has done before or since live up to the quality of this book - although some come close.

worth ten stars, 26 Jul 2007
he did tail off in his later books,but this for me is the high point.no clues to the plot,just get it and enjoy.dont read it with young kids about,first they will think your gone mad with all the laughter,second are you really going to tell them about the porg that came out of the oven?good clean dirty fun.a masterpiece

Tom Sharpe - A Genius , 07 Oct 2006
One of the very few authors with the talent to make you laugh out loud, book after book. I guarantee that once you have read one of his novels, you will be frantically searching for everything else he has ever written. His South African based novels are very humourous but for me, it is his take on the English Eccentric that never fails to raise a laugh. His books Vintage Stuff and Ancestral Vices are particular favourites.

Top DRAWER, 11 Aug 2006
The king of satire.

There is no funnier writer today.

Please tell me if there is as I have read all his collection

A joy.

A fantastic read, 24 Oct 2003
A great book, nice to see it back for another edition. Shame it's in a larger format, won't fit in my pocket now!

Typical Sharpe... no bad thing!, 30 Aug 2003
I remember reading Ancestral Vices for the first time, on a train. And did I laugh? I howled, I wept, I was a helpless, quivering jelly for minutes at a time. The other passengers probably assumed I was having a fit or seizure.

In terms of plotline and characterisation, it is typical of Sharpe: the English class system is torn apart like tissue paper in a vicious social satire; the male characters are unsympathetic pedantics and deviants; women are often hideous gorgons. Yet there are two qualities that also come out in a Sharpe novel - a quaint love of the fault-ridden society with its appalling mores, iniquities and moral dilemmas, and a darker subtext presenting the evils of meddling with that society.

Like few other writers I know, Tom Sharpe has an unerring eye for the ridiculous, and a rapier wit to exploit a farce to its most extreme potential. Some people might call it juvenile, schoolboy humour (including Sharpe himself), but that undersells his skill as a writer.

march of time may hinder, 26 Jul 2007
this an extremely fun well written tom sharpe classic.will have you laughing out loud at the old south africa.and the old empire days.this might hinder some readers with the humour but the vivid story telling of mr sharpe this shouldn`t be to much of a problem.i found this book in the 80`s and have it loads of times since.with the start off in Riotous Assembly and the great shoot out this ties things up neatly.
it is great fun

The funniest book i've ever read., 23 May 2004
Let's cut to the chase, this book along with Riotous assembly are without doubt the funniest books i've ever read.
Unlike the other Sharpe books (which are nowhere as good i hasten to add) you will find that once you've started you cannot put them down.My wife,i'm sure, contemplated having me admitted under the mental health act, such were my outbursts of laughter.
Buy both these books, you will read them again and again.

THe Funniest Book in the world, 25 Jul 2003
I read this book three times in the first week of picking it up and roared with laughter from cover to cover. It has to be the funniest book ever and has converted me to an avid Tom Sharpe fan. Well worth a read and guaranteed to keep you chuckling to yourself even when you're not reading it.

Five Stars, 25 Oct 2001
This is Tom Sharpe's best book by far! The exploding ostrich section and the tests carried out with electrodes are so funny that I couldn't stop laughing.

If you have never read a Tom Sharpe book before, start with this one!

and again for your prediliction..., 21 Jun 2000
The memorable characters of Riotous Asembly return for another dose of Antipodean mayhem, and the joys of apartheid. this time the whole town gets the "treatment" as defined by Konstabel Els zealous actions. To sweeten the mixture this time a psychologist from Auschwitz or Belsen (take your pick) get's to practice her skills - professional and otherwise - upon Konstable Els who didn't get off QUITE so scott-free this time. No wonder the whites handed over the reins! "Vintage" Sharpe!

Start reading Sharpe here, 07 Sep 2008
You might have heard of Tom Sharpe because of the film Wilt or perhaps because of the series Blott on the Landscape or even Porterhouse Blue. He is one of the funniest authors ever, and this is where you should start. If you want to read the best of his novels then this is it.

As someone who has spent far too much of his life inside these "ivory towers" this is a gem. The characters are as real today as when he wrote the book thirty years ago. Some things never change.

A brilliantly funny and beautifully written romp, a great novel!, 12 Jul 2008
I've loved this book for nearly 20 years now, it is one of the select few books I re-read every year.

Porterhouse is not only astonishingly amusing, but Sharpe's gimlet intelligence comprehensively skewers the contortions of both liberal and illiberal consciences. Porterhouse neatly encapsulates the eccentricity that bedevils and glorifies England.

As well as being entertainment, this is a seriously good novel.

porterhouse rules, 07 Oct 2003
An unusual choice for me, as i usually don't read comedy/farce. This book was hilarious right from the beginning. All the characters have there own agenda's and there opposing positions and attitudes create fantastic moments of comedy. Skullion without a doubt is the most comical character. Sharpe has done a superb job in creating well rounded characters, that are very funny. If i had one downfall with the book, its that the character Zipster, who i found hilarious for his antics, was not developed to his full potential. The book is well worth reading, it would appeal to everyone.

Tom Sharpe is a very intelligent writer, 24 Dec 2002
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good read as well as a good laugh. This is British humour at its best, tragic and hilarious at the same time. The author is focusing his imagination in a series of well coordinated events which keep the reader in suspense up to the end.
Believe me, if you feel down, go and buy yourself a copy, this book will cheer you up !
As for me, well, I am looking forward to starting another of Tom Sharpe's intelligent and funny story !!

His books are so funny they are actually believable!, 23 Jan 2001
If you have read Riotuos Assembly and Indecent Exposure you may find this book a little less erratic. And maybe thats because its closer to home. Set in the University town of Cambridge the story is set around a very conservative university that survives by selling degrees to the rich and at all costs not letting 'real intellectuals' to enter. So when the Prime Minister appoints his most socialist of ministers, Sir Godber Evans - an ex Porterhouse student, to the post of Master the rest of the Fellows are united to prevent his 'radical changes' going forward. However the hero/villan of the story is not the Dean, the Bursarer or the Chaplain but the Colleges Porter - Skullion. Skullion, the 45 year serving head Porter has no illusions that it is as much his duty as any one elses to prevent the new master from fixing what is not broken, and he will do anything he can!

This book is more than funny, it is witty, clever and above all totally beliveable. When you read Tom Sharpes work it is hard to believe that his books are nearly 30 years old, yet as relevant as ever. If you love people like Ben Elton and his dry humourous, yet realistic books then you will LOVE Tom Sharpe who invented it!

BUY THEM ALL!

One of the most impressive things about Wilt in Nowhere is that Tom Sharpe manages to go on being outrageous and funny after such a long career--after all, what does a satirist do when real world lifestyles and events exceed his wildest earlier inventions? The answer is, of course, that he just goes on making wonderful things up--this is the first novel about his quietly stroppy, lazy-as-hell college lecturer hero Wilt for 20 years, and Wilt is as funny in an era of e-mail and NHS cuts as he was back then.

There is also a gentle nostalgia in some of the writing here. Wilt's hike through the English countryside in early chapters has pastoral charm in patches as well as a sarcastic sense of rural dereliction. Sharpe's sense of rural American life is rather more broad-brush, but the damage inflicted on an obnoxious millionaire by Wilt's four terrifying daughters shows a sense of just how power works.

This is a gentler book than some of Sharpe's satires, but he still has all of his bitter irony intact; this is not the book of someone who has mellowed in later life. --Roz Kaveney

thigh slappingly hilarious, 09 Jun 2007
Henry Wilt hasn't been promoted in ten years of work in further education. He is also down trodden somewhat by his wife Eva... or so it seems. Then the pair go to some pseudo intellectuals party (the Pringsheims) and all hell breaks loose after the hostess sets Wilt up in a compromising position with an inflatable doll after Wilt refuses to have sex with her. Following the discovery by Eva she buggers off with the Pringsheims leaving Henry to his increasingly warped thoughts. Soon he hatches a plan murder Eva at the risk of him being made to look a fool over the doll furore... this feeling is fuelled when Eva posts him another doll. Wilt decides to use it in place of Eva in a dummy murder run dumping it down a shaft at the tech where he works. Then when the builders are about to fill the hole they spot the doll and a hilarious story ensues. A must read!

Simply HIlarious, 29 Apr 2007
This is the funniest book I have ever read, hands down. If you have never laughed out loud at a book before, read this. You WILL be rolling around, laughing out loud like an idiot!
Tom Sharpe makes comic genius look like something that can be learned at a run-down Further Education college. Sadly it can't.

Superb!, 01 Jun 2005
The funniest book of all time! I was in hospital with a severe throat infection when I read it. It was agony to swallow or talk, let alone laugh. But after less than 20 pages the nurses has to take it off me as I was waking up the whole ward. Next day, I fell out of bed when I came to the bit about the greenhouse - the drip torn out of my arm. I was released from hospital 2 days later.

Hillarious!!!, 08 Apr 2005
Absolutely amazing! I bought this book when I was about to travel and I could not put it down!! Amazing British humour! Tom Sharpe is just excellent!

Wilt by Tom Sharpe, 09 Dec 2003
I first read this book some twenty years ago on a train to London about to embark on my career in Higher Education. For the first time in my life I laughed out loud at a book. I sat on the train in public and could not help laughing at nearly every page, until tears streamed down my face. Tom Sharpes sartorial humour had not been surpassed since. Plumbers four, blow up dolls and further educationalists have never been the same since. Hugely funny.

Spoof at apartheid, 29 Apr 2007
Tom Sharpe's spoof at apartheid is brilliantly written and its comical sense of way also exposes the tragedy of apartheid; an extreme form of the caste system where mankind was segregated on the sole basis of skin colour.
There is a torture scene in the book which reveals the extent a prisoner reveals depending on the degree of torture. He gets tortured so much that inthe end, he loses his mind and starts telling stories.
Only Tom Sharpe could write a book so funny you are giggling all through it but also so powerful at making you understand how apartheid really worked. All of his works should rank among the best in the field of comedy; this one should be also recommended to political science students.

An Unrestratined Comic Pummeling of the RSA, 25 Jan 2005
If you're ever in the mood for a hugely over-the-top farce about apartheid-era South Africa, well, this is the book for you. Sharpe spent a decade there before being deported as a subversive, and after reading this unrestrained comic pummeling of the RSA, one can only wonder why it took the authorities so long to give him the boot. Indeed authority is target number one in this fast-paced story set in the small city of Piemburg. It all starts when an elderly semi-aristocratic Englishwoman calls the police to report that she's shot her Zulu cook. Refusing police Kommandant van Heerden's best attempts to cover up the matter, she reveals that the cook was also her lover, which so appalls him that he immediately declares a state of emergency and mobilizes the entire police force. And so begins a massive comedy of errors, in which a "Kaffir-Killer" Konstabel Els plays a large role, as does the slimy Luitenant Veerkamp, and matters take a turn for the utterly bizarre, as rubber fetishes, bondage, a drunken bishop, porno films, cross dressing, and penile novocain injections are all introduced to the plot. As one might surmise from such a litany, the plot spins ever more wildly out of control until events come to a head at--appropriately enough--the insane asylum. All the antics are intermittently funny, and it's somewhat refreshing to see the horrors of apartheid treated with rather less than the usual gravitas. Worth a read if you've got a special interest in South Africa or a soft spot for broad farce, otherwise not all that noteworthy.

Murderously Funny!!, 30 Aug 2004
Riotous Assembly is a hysterically funny satire, set in the mid 20th Century South Africa.
Sharpe has taken aspects of the South African police force, which would otherwise be of serious matter and turned it into a witty and enjoyable insight into the apartheid era.
Unique and quirky characters contribute to a twisting and intriguing plot, which will make your head spin.
Even if the subject matter does not appeal to all, Sharpe's savagely hillarious approach will make you laugh out loud.

Riotous Assembly, 07 Nov 2003
This book should carry a health warning! There were times during the reading of this book that I laughed so much I could hardly breathe. It is Tom Sharpe at his best and the book is laced with his well known brand of humour and ridiculous though somehow believable plots! The setting has since been superceeded but I don't think it detracts from the book in anyway. Not for the faint hearted or easily offended!

As good as the book, 26 Jul 2003
I read the book in my teenage years and all the action then is brought to life with these tapes.

Simon Callow reads it brillantly; his accents are great; he sets the scenes well and none of the swearing is removed - which would spoil it.

I think this is his best book by far and I recomend reading the book or listening to the tapes.

Probably not for the politicaly correct!

True to Northumberland!, 12 Nov 2008
I live very near to where Tom Sharpe sets this comic-Gothic extravaganza. Somewhat alarmingly, it is 'true' to the people who live in the area. The bleak, stark nature of both the countryside and, those characters that lived here during the 1960's and early 70's, is frighteningly accurate. They abide here still; but, due to the influence of television, 'in-comers' and a thin veneer of civilisation, they are not so readily apparent...but, just you dare to scratch the surface!

An old friend of mine recalls, as a young shepherd lad working way-up in the hills, he once encountered a lone 'walker' with whom he chatted for an hour. The 'walker' questioned him about local 'characters' and traditions. Said friend, Gordon, regaled him with various stories set in and around the Elsdon area ('England's unfinished nook')which appeared to delight the 'walker' and he, in turn, asked many, and searching questions.

The 'walker' also asked about the peculiar nature of our local reservoirs and water-courses, which are extensive and architecturally intriguing. He appeared to know rather more than did Gordon, to whom they were merely an accepted feature and seldom remarked upon.

Gordon, a natural story-teller, musician and artist; tall, well-built and generally something of an 'imposing' figure alround, is convinced that the man with whom he spent an idle hour, was indeed Tom Sharpe.....he further believes that he was the model for Sharpe's central character!

The foot-note to which being, Gordon so enjoyed this unexpected diversion from his otherwise lonely existence and, the intentness of his 'audience', that it determined for him another 'future' - he became a most gifted teacher.





Disappointed, 22 Aug 2008
I have loved and enjoyed all the Wilt books and thought this was another one just as good..wrong...!
It started off OK but very quickly went from amusing to really OTT verging on stupid and not like Wilt at all. I can't understand all the readers who found it funny and amusing....the songs and the poetry were OK once around but got to be boring very quickly..definitely wouldn't recommend it.

One Third Extra Hound per Pound, 23 Jul 2008
Tom Sharpe was born in London in 1928. He is perhaps best known for "Porterhouse Blue" and his Wilt series, both of which have been adapted for television. "The Throwback" is one of his standalone novels.

Lockhart Flawse has had a rather unusual upbringing. He was born in September 1956, in the shadow of a stone wall after his mother was thrown from her horse. Although he came through the labour alive - though, thanks to a patch of nettles, not entirely unscathed - his mother unfortunately didn't. This upset his grandfather, Edwin, somewhat - more so that she wasn't married and had steadfastly refused to name the boy's father. Lockhart was raised and educated entirely on his grandfather's estate. However, the lack of a birth certificate meant he didn't officially exist - his grandfather says he'll only register him when he knows who the father is. The education he received ensured he was an expert shot with excellent mental arithmetic and a high degree of fluency in Urdu, he knows somewhat less about human reproduction than his mother did.

Flawse the Elder is not an admirable character - it's entirely possible he was a close relation of Monty Burns. (He suffers from a nagging suspicion that he might be the Lockhart's father, as well as his grandfather - he's not entirely certain than a drunken encounter with the housekeeper wasn't a drunken encounter with someone else entirely). Unsurprisingly, he suffers from an acute superiority complex, enjoys hunting, fishing and shooting and - although he acknowledges that sex necessary for procreation - also takes the view that it's generally disgusting. However, when it comes to sex, he'll grasp every available opportunity to be disgusted.

Although Lockhart has had a very sheltered life, things change dramatically when he and his grandfather take a cruise. On-board, they meet the stunningly beautiful Jessica Sandicott and her widowed mother - naturally, the young couple fall head over heels in love and are swiftly married by the ship's captain. (This happens not only with the approval of their aged relatives, but practically at the insistence - they're both desperate to get rid of their dependents). However, as part of the negotiations, Edwin and Jessica's mother also wind up married. Mrs Sandicott is delighted, believing her new husband to be not only exceptionally rich, but also close to death. Unfortunately, it hasn't crossed her mind that she might be marrying someone at least as devious as she is : Edwin knows exactly what she is up to, and views her only as a housekeeper who will never need paying. On their return to England, the games the older pair play have all sorts of implications for the younger pair...and things turn a little dangerous when Edwin draws up his will. Luckily for the young couple, Lockhart proves to be every bit as devious as his grandfather. He can also rely on the help of Dodds, the gamekeeper at Flawse Hall, and two of his grandfather's old acquaintances: Dr Magrew and Mr Bullstrode, his solicitor.

A fast moving and occasionally daft book, though certainly funny and a very enjoyable read.

Brillant, 08 Mar 2008
I read this book for the first time on a train journey. I think the people in the place thought I was gone mad I laughed so much. When I came home, I gave the book to my late father who must have read it every year until his death, he actually broke the spine of the book. I consider the scene when the doctor asks him about Lockhart his sexual relations with his wife the funniest I have ever read. Buy the Book and weap!!!

Tom Sharpe - The throwback, 24 Jan 2008
I first read this book many years ago, and continue to re-visit it to this day - it is the funniest novel I have ever read.
The first time I read the chapter about the old army colonel & the french letter I was sitting on the train travelling home, and got very odd looks from my fellow commuters - you cannot help but laugh out loud at the absurd but plausible scene that unfolds in the Colonels bedroom.
On lending the book to family members & friends, it has never returned, causing me to be on my 8th or 9th copy - it is that popular.
I don't think anything Tom Sharpe has done before or since live up to the quality of this book - although some come close.

worth ten stars, 26 Jul 2007
he did tail off in his later books,but this for me is the high point.no clues to the plot,just get it and enjoy.dont read it with young kids about,first they will think your gone mad with all the laughter,second are you really going to tell them about the porg that came out of the oven?good clean dirty fun.a masterpiece

Tom Sharpe - A Genius , 07 Oct 2006
One of the very few authors with the talent to make you laugh out loud, book after book. I guarantee that once you have read one of his novels, you will be frantically searching for everything else he has ever written. His South African based novels are very humourous but for me, it is his take on the English Eccentric that never fails to raise a laugh. His books Vintage Stuff and Ancestral Vices are particular favourites.

Top DRAWER, 11 Aug 2006
The king of satire.

There is no funnier writer today.

Please tell me if there is as I have read all his collection

A joy.

A fantastic read, 24 Oct 2003
A great book, nice to see it back for another edition. Shame it's in a larger format, won't fit in my pocket now!

Typical Sharpe... no bad thing!, 30 Aug 2003
I remember reading Ancestral Vices for the first time, on a train. And did I laugh? I howled, I wept, I was a helpless, quivering jelly for minutes at a time. The other passengers probably assumed I was having a fit or seizure.

In terms of plotline and characterisation, it is typical of Sharpe: the English class system is torn apart like tissue paper in a vicious social satire; the male characters are unsympathetic pedantics and deviants; women are often hideous gorgons. Yet there are two qualities that also come out in a Sharpe novel - a quaint love of the fault-ridden society with its appalling mores, iniquities and moral dilemmas, and a darker subtext presenting the evils of meddling with that society.

Like few other writers I know, Tom Sharpe has an unerring eye for the ridiculous, and a rapier wit to exploit a farce to its most extreme potential. Some people might call it juvenile, schoolboy humour (including Sharpe himself), but that undersells his skill as a writer.

march of time may hinder, 26 Jul 2007
this an extremely fun well written tom sharpe classic.will have you laughing out loud at the old south africa.and the old empire days.this might hinder some readers with the humour but the vivid story telling of mr sharpe this shouldn`t be to much of a problem.i found this book in the 80`s and have it loads of times since.with the start off in Riotous Assembly and the great shoot out this ties things up neatly.
it is great fun

The funniest book i've ever read., 23 May 2004
Let's cut to the chase, this book along with Riotous assembly are without doubt the funniest books i've ever read.
Unlike the other Sharpe books (which are nowhere as good i hasten to add) you will find that once you've started you cannot put them down.My wife,i'm sure, contemplated having me admitted under the mental health act, such were my outbursts of laughter.
Buy both these books, you will read them again and again.

THe Funniest Book in the world, 25 Jul 2003
I read this book three times in the first week of picking it up and roared with laughter from cover to cover. It has to be the funniest book ever and has converted me to an avid Tom Sharpe fan. Well worth a read and guaranteed to keep you chuckling to yourself even when you're not reading it.

Five Stars, 25 Oct 2001
This is Tom Sharpe's best book by far! The exploding ostrich section and the tests carried out with electrodes are so funny that I couldn't stop laughing.

If you have never read a Tom Sharpe book before, start with this one!

and again for your prediliction..., 21 Jun 2000
The memorable characters of Riotous Asembly return for another dose of Antipodean mayhem, and the joys of apartheid. this time the whole town gets the "treatment" as defined by Konstabel Els zealous actions. To sweeten the mixture this time a psychologist from Auschwitz or Belsen (take your pick) get's to practice her skills - professional and otherwise - upon Konstable Els who didn't get off QUITE so scott-free this time. No wonder the whites handed over the reins! "Vintage" Sharpe!

Start reading Sharpe here, 07 Sep 2008
You might have heard of Tom Sharpe because of the film Wilt or perhaps because of the series Blott on the Landscape or even Porterhouse Blue. He is one of the funniest authors ever, and this is where you should start. If you want to read the best of his novels then this is it.

As someone who has spent far too much of his life inside these "ivory towers" this is a gem. The characters are as real today as when he wrote the book thirty years ago. Some things never change.

A brilliantly funny and beautifully written romp, a great novel!, 12 Jul 2008
I've loved this book for nearly 20 years now, it is one of the select few books I re-read every year.

Porterhouse is not only astonishingly amusing, but Sharpe's gimlet intelligence comprehensively skewers the contortions of both liberal and illiberal consciences. Porterhouse neatly encapsulates the eccentricity that bedevils and glorifies England.

As well as being entertainment, this is a seriously good novel.

porterhouse rules, 07 Oct 2003
An unusual choice for me, as i usually don't read comedy/farce. This book was hilarious right from the beginning. All the characters have there own agenda's and there opposing positions and attitudes create fantastic moments of comedy. Skullion without a doubt is the most comical character. Sharpe has done a superb job in creating well rounded characters, that are very funny. If i had one downfall with the book, its that the character Zipster, who i found hilarious for his antics, was not developed to his full potential. The book is well worth reading, it would appeal to everyone.

Tom Sharpe is a very intelligent writer, 24 Dec 2002
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good read as well as a good laugh. This is British humour at its best, tragic and hilarious at the same time. The author is focusing his imagination in a series of well coordinated events which keep the reader in suspense up to the end.
Believe me, if you feel down, go and buy yourself a copy, this book will cheer you up !
As for me, well, I am looking forward to starting another of Tom Sharpe's intelligent and funny story !!

His books are so funny they are actually believable!, 23 Jan 2001
If you have read Riotuos Assembly and Indecent Exposure you may find this book a little less erratic. And maybe thats because its closer to home. Set in the University town of Cambridge the story is set around a very conservative university that survives by selling degrees to the rich and at all costs not letting 'real intellectuals' to enter. So when the Prime Minister appoints his most socialist of ministers, Sir Godber Evans - an ex Porterhouse student, to the post of Master the rest of the Fellows are united to prevent his 'radical changes' going forward. However the hero/villan of the story is not the Dean, the Bursarer or the Chaplain but the Colleges Porter - Skullion. Skullion, the 45 year serving head Porter has no illusions that it is as much his duty as any one elses to prevent the new master from fixing what is not broken, and he will do anything he can!

This book is more than funny, it is witty, clever and above all totally beliveable. When you read Tom Sharpes work it is hard to believe that his books are nearly 30 years old, yet as relevant as ever. If you love people like Ben Elton and his dry humourous, yet realistic books then you will LOVE Tom Sharpe who invented it!

BUY THEM ALL!

Disappointing, 28 Jan 2008
Having read Tom Sharpe over a number of years, I have always thoroughly enjoyed his writing and ascerbic wit. Unfortunately, this one falls far short of what has gone before. It is disjointed and simply not very funny overall.

Wilt is Nowhere, 24 Dec 2007
I was disappointed with this latest excursion by Tom Sharpe into the land of Henry Wilt. Previous instalments, especially "Wilt" and "Wilt on High" have seen our misfortunate Tech Lecturer battle, humorously with the bureaucracy of institutions and situations generated by his own approach to life. This time in "Wilt in Nowhere" Henry Wilt is no more that a bit part player in a set of scenarios loosely linked by the Wilt family, in fact Wilt is Nowhere. The clever humour that Tom Sharpe has generated i