Literary Birthday – 30 March – Tom Sharpe

Tom Sharpe was born on 30 March 1928 and died on 6 June 2013.

Tom Sharpe Quotes

1. The man who said the pen was mightier than the sword ought to have tried reading The Mill on the Floss to Motor Mechanics.
2. His had been an intellectual decision founded on his conviction that if a little knowledge was a dangerous thing, a lot was lethal.
3. We must not only strike the iron while it is hot, we must strike it until it is hot.
4. There’s nothing worse than an introspective drunk.
5. Not many people like or understand him. He is, like the British, an acquired taste.
6. Guilt is often a substitute for good honest-to-goodness evil.
7. It is so depressing. I can’t bear it. There is no such thing as the English gentleman any more. Money rules everything.

Tom Sharpe was an English satirical author. He is best known for his Wilt series of novels, as well as Porterhouse Blue and Blott on the Landscape. (All three were adapted for film or television.) According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, ‘Sharpe was known for his bawdy style and for his ability to take the absurdities of everyday life to uproarious new heights with extravagant—albeit obnoxious—storylines. The most beloved of his 16 novels depicted the comic misfortune of the ill-fated college lecturer Henry Wilt.’ Sharpe’s time in South Africa inspired his novels Riotous Assembly and Indecent Exposure, in which he mocked the apartheid regime. He was later deported. His contributions to literature earned him several accolades, including the Le Legion d’Humeur and the Laureat du Grand Prix de l’Humeur Noir.

Source for image: Goodreads

by Amanda Patterson

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