“The man who said the pen was mightier than the sword ought to have tried reading The Mill on the Floss to Motor Mechanics.” Tom Sharpe was writing what are very possibly the funniest novels in English today. He was born in Holloway, London, and brought up in Croydon. Sharpe's father, the Reverend George Coverdale Sharpe, was a Unitarian minister who was active in far-right politics in the 1930s. Tom Sharpe was educated at Bloxham School, on which he based Groxbourne in Vintage Stuff, followed by Lancing College. He then did National Service in the Royal Marines before being accepted to Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he read history and social anthropology. Tom Sharpe crafted satiric novels dripping with dark and riotous humour. He was known for his bawdy style and for his ability to take the absurdities of everyday life to uproarious new heights with extravagant and obnoxious storylines. The most beloved of his 16 novels depicted the comic misfortune of the ill-fated college lecturer Henry Wilt. A comedic novel Wilt is probably Tom Sharpe’s best-known novel. Henry Wilt is a feeble failure of a lecturer at a shabby Fenland community college, trying to teach The Mill On The Floss to classes of apprentice gasfitters and plumbers. Wilt’s wife Eva falls in with some trendy Californians who epitomise the shallow hedonism Wilt despises. At a swinging party Wilt refuses to have sex with her. And the comedy starts! You can listen online to free English audiobook “Wilt” by Tom Sharpe on our website.
