Tom Sharpe

[mikey4444]

I have just started re-reading "Riotous Assembly" I first read this at least 25 years ago and haven't picked it up again since.

But the same thing is happening now, as it did years ago ! This is not a book to read on public transport, otherwise you be thought to have gone completely
mad, as its impossible not to keep giggling.

I think I shall be having an Autumn Tom Sharpe festival this year !

[murraymints]

same with the Heriot vet books !

[waterboatman]

I've got them too mikey, along with all Terry Pratchett's books, also very funny.

[mikey4444]

Minty....yes, I read them last winter and was terribly disappointed when I finished the last one. But that is what good books are for ....I shall just have to read them again !

I haven't read all the Sharpe books, but I remember an hilarious TV adaption of "Porterhouse Blue" with John Sessions and David Jason. Channel Four could do a lot worse than repeat that !

[Old_Geezer]

Tom Sharpe's tales are very good.

Is South Africa going back to apartheid then ?

[mikey4444]

OG...don't know about that ! I hope not.

I like reading an authors complete output....it gives me a project ! I enjoyed all the Shute books very much and I expect to get the same enjoyment for Sharpe

[Patsy33]

How funny, Mikey, I've been thinking about buying some Tom Sharpe books lately. My son used to have the whole collection. Unfortunately, he sold them all on eBay! I read The Throwback years ago and my god, I've never giggled so much in all my life! I got through so far with another Riotous Assembly, so funny! Must read it again. Guaranteed to make you laugh!

[Arksided]

The Throwback is one of my all time favourite Tom Sharpe novels... worthy of a re-read now it's being mentioned, I still have a copy.

[vetuste_ennemi]

And don't forget "Indecent Exposure" and "Wilt". The three funniest in my opinion. Read over thirty years ago. Have embarrassed myself on a bus by ignoring Mikey's advice.

Exploding ostriches, black servant with rubber suit, novocaine, Konstabel Els fixing his teeth into dobermann's genitalia. It all comes back to me!

Got a few brownie points by giving the two South African novels to my wife to be.

[vetuste_ennemi]

Maybe should revisit Sharpe myself. And Douglas Adams. (Down the basement, along the corridor, littledoor with assign onit - "Beware of the leopard".

[vetuste_ennemi]

...little door with a sign on it..

[Togo]

Els is perfectly portrayed, and the old "Lady" had me weeping with laughter. Any Tom Sharpe book is worth reading but Blott on the Landscape is so brilliant ( even better than Porterhouse Blue) that I can only say that if you have not read it you have deprived yourself of a treasure.

[Togo]

//Maybe should revisit Sharpe myself.//

Vetuste, I had just said that to myself as I read your earlier post.

[ladybirder]

I remember embarrassing myself on the train home from work many moons ago with tears streaming down my face whilst reading The Wilt Alternative. It was my first Tom Sharpe read and I got to the bit where he stops for a pee on his way home from the pub and rips his willy on a thorn bush. That started me off. His wife then catches him washing it under the bathroom tap and thinks he's been with another woman. I got a few dirty looks but I remember one chap looking at what I was reading, gave me the thumbs up. Obviously a fan as I was from then on. Marvellous stuff. One of a kind was Mr Sharpe.

[mikey4444]

Well, I went to the Library this morning, to order "Indecent Exposure" but was told that they haven't got one in the system !

So I ordered the first "Wilt" book instead.......my reading looks as if it set for the next month or two at least.

A good book is a very good friend !

[mikey4444]

I am about half-way through "Wilt" and I must say that I am enjoying it so much.....not so much perhaps as "Riotous Assembly" but its pretty good.

I have "Indecent Exposure" on order on ebay ( absolutely the best source for second hand books ! ) and I have ordered the 2nd Wilt book from the library.

[DTCwordfan]

Good idea, mikey, Wilt and the Wilt Alternative.....brilliant

[DTCwordfan]

and, yes, more than familiar with the reduced to giggles in public syndrome, especially at Heathrow.

[mikey4444]

I am a big fan of Wodehouse, and his "Blandings" books are as funny as books can get.

But nothing prepared me for "Riotous Assembly" ....nothing, and that was his first published book !

[zylaphone]

Love Sharpes books. Which book was the cheese grater in the kitchen. Was that Els!