Product Description

The landscape is flawless, the trees majestic, the flora and the fauna are right and proper, the whole is picturesquely typical of rural England at its best. Sir Giles, an MP of few principles and curius tastes, plots to destroy all this by building a motorway smack through it, to line his own pocket and at the same time to dispose of his wife, the capacious Lady Maude. Sir Giles recruits to his side Hoskins, a corrupt local official, Lord Leakham, the environmental equivalent of a hanging judge, and Dundridge, a troublesome bureaucrat with an unhealthy passion for order. Against this powerful lobby are ranged a mere handful of local residents led by Lady Maude. Hardly at first sight a team to withstand the batteries of official inertia, Compulsory Purchase Orders and bulldozer blades. But, Lady Maude enlists a surprising ally in her enigmatic gardener Blott, patriotism burns bright. Lady Maude's dynamism and Blott's concealed talents enable them to meet pressure with mumicry, loaded tribunals with publicity and chilli powder, requisition orders with wickedly spiked beer. To every official ploy, Blott and Lady Maude oppose their own ingenious and unprincipled countermove until in a spectacular finale Blott, with four hundred tins of baked beans among his armoury, takes on the army single handed.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #65048 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

About the Author
Tom Sharpe was born in 1928 and educated at Lancing College and Pembroke College, Cambridge. He did his National Service in the Marines before going to South Africa in 1951, where he did social work before teaching in Natal. He had a photographic studio in Pietermaritzburg from 1957 until 1961, when he was deported... From 1963 to 1972 he was a lecturer in History at the Cambridge College of Arts and Technology. In 1986 he was awarded the XXXIIIeme Grand Prix de l'Humour Noir Xavier Forneret. He is married and lives in Cambridge.

Customer Reviews

Good but if you are new to Sharpe read Porterhouse Blue first
As usual Sharpe pokes fun at the British with his usual wit and sense of irony, but for me this time he does not have the same well perceived characters as in Porterhouse Blue. There is very much the same divide across the classes that non-British will find an amusing anachronism but with the University background it felt so much more natural in South Worfordshire it seems more contrived.

It is still a fun book with wonderfully absurd characters but for me I enjoyed Porterhouse much more.

excellent book

Readers of other Sharpe books will know exactly what to expect from this - an excellently written, funny book with quite a few farcical moments.

Tom Sharpe is an excellent author whose older books I have been reading recently. Although this book was originally published 20 years ago, this kind of story can still be appreciated today.

This book is also a standalone one, unlike some others that Sharpe has written. This means you can read it, safe in the knowledge it's not a sequel or in a sequence of books.

Overall an excellent book that is well worth reading, whether you are new to Sharpe or already a fan.

Great comedy and mini-series
Sir Giles Lynchwood, Conservative MP, schemes to have a motorway extend over his houses. He never liked the house and is in a position to earn quite a bit from the transaction. His wife who married him with the promise of children to keep the house and the estate going. The handyman, Lott an East German refugee, fortifies the gatehouse to repel the construction crew. It is much more complex with subplots. Everyone has their own agenda and watch out for the lions.

Be sure to watch the mini-series also.
Many videos do not live up to the expectations of the book. This one may even surpass the book. All of the characters fit and all the irony hits you in the face. This was my first encounter with David Suchet (Blott). And you will recognize all the other major players including Geraldine James (Lady Maud Lynchwood).

Aside from his excellent performance on the audiotape version of the book; David Suchet is Blott in the mini-series. This tape is easy enough to follow that you can use it in the car. When following the book you can get a different perspective than the TV series offers. The TV series is now on DVD. I know Tom Sharpe's comedy is similar to other British comedies; however I really identify with the people that he describes. The people are similar in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy". Come to think of it the plot is similar in a domestic sort of way.