Tom Sharpe, 1928–2013
The British novelist who fused satire and smut
Tom Sharpe’s bawdy, satirical novels about English society led some to label him the heir to P.G. Wodehouse and Evelyn Waugh, but the author had little affection for his compatriots. “I love England,” he said in 2010, “but I don’t like the English.”
Sharpe’s London upbringing was colored by his father, an unashamed supporter of Adolf Hitler, said The New York Times. Sharpe “grew up awash in Nazi ideology.” Only when he saw footage of the concentration camps in 1945 did he discover, he said, that Hitler “was not the man I was led to believe he was.” After studying at Cambridge, Sharpe immigrated to South Africa to work as a social worker. He became a fierce opponent of apartheid, and was deported in 1961 after writing a play criticizing the country’s regime.
Sharpe wrote his first novel in 1971 at age 43, said The Washington Post, and produced one almost every year for the next decade, each stuffed with sex and dark satire. Riotous Assembly and Indecent Exposure spoofed South African society, and Sharpe poked fun at the “clubby world” of British academia in Porterhouse Blue and local English politics in Blott on the Landscape. He was best known for his six “Wilt” novels, about a cowardly university lecturer battling political correctness, corrupt administrators, and an “overweight, sexually ravenous wife.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sharpe’s “mix of bawdiness and polemic” proved hugely popular, said The Daily Mail (U.K.), but he was plagued by writer’s block in the 1980s and early ’90s until he moved to Spain in 1995 and began writing again. His health deteriorated, but he kept his dark sense of humor. After suffering a heart attack live on Spanish television, he liked to treat guests with a video of the event.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Today's political cartoons - May 5, 2024
Cartoons Sunday's cartoons - annoying noises, gag orders, and more
By The Week US Published
-
5 highly educational cartoons about student protests
Cartoons Artists take on apolitical camping, the National Guard, and more
By The Week US Published
-
French schools and the scourge of teenage violence
Talking Point Gabriel Attal announces 'bold' intervention to tackle rise in violent incidents
By The Week UK Published
-
Benjamin Zephaniah: trailblazing writer who 'took poetry everywhere'
Why Everyone's Talking About Remembering the 'radical' wordsmith's 'wit and sense of mischief'
By The Week UK Published
-
Shane MacGowan: the unruly former punk with a literary soul
Why Everyone's Talking About The Pogues frontman died aged 65
By The Week UK Published
-
'Euphoria' star Angus Cloud dies at 25
Speed Read
By Catherine Garcia Published
-
Legendary jazz and pop singer Tony Bennett dies at 96
Speed Read
By Devika Rao Published
-
Martin Amis: literary wunderkind who ‘blazed like a rocket’
feature Famed author, essayist and screenwriter died this week aged 73
By The Week Staff Published
-
Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian folk legend, is dead at 84
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Barry Humphries obituary: cerebral satirist who created Dame Edna Everage
feature Actor and comedian was best known as the monstrous Melbourne housewife and Sir Les Patterson
By The Week Staff Published
-
Mary Quant obituary: pioneering designer who created the 1960s look
feature One of the most influential fashion designers of the 20th century remembered as the mother of the miniskirt
By The Week Staff Published