Product Description

Porterhouse College is world renowned for its gastronomic excellence, the arrogance of its Fellows, its academic mediocrity and the social cachet it confers on the athletic sons of county families. Sir Godber Evans, ex-Cabinet Minister and the new Master, is determined to change all this. Spurred on by his politically angular wife, Lady Mary, he challenges the established order and provokes the wrath of the Dean, the Senior Tutor, the Bursar and, most intransigent of all, Skullion the Head Porter - with hilarious and catastrophic results.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30800 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

From the Publisher
A Rabelaisian portrait of a college and the ancient traditions of the university, Porterhouse Blue is one of the best-loved, classic comic novels of our times

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

MORE THAN HUMOUR - SHARPE IS A NATIONAL TREASURE.
Porterhouse Blue is without doubt one of Tom Sharpe's funniest books. I remember reading it for the first time some years ago. I had picked it up at Heathrow prior to boarding a New York bound 747. I think the stewardess thought I was having a seizure - people do not normally sit in an airline seat and laugh until they cry! Such was the effect of this story. I think it should be prescribed on the National Health, make people forget their ills. Brilliant read.

Tom Sharpe is a very intelligent writer
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good read as well as a good laugh. This is British humour at its best, tragic and hilarious at the same time. The author is focusing his imagination in a series of well coordinated events which keep the reader in suspense up to the end.
Believe me, if you feel down, go and buy yourself a copy, this book will cheer you up !
As for me, well, I am looking forward to starting another of Tom Sharpe's intelligent and funny story !!

His books are so funny they are actually believable!
If you have read Riotuos Assembly and Indecent Exposure you may find this book a little less erratic. And maybe thats because its closer to home. Set in the University town of Cambridge the story is set around a very conservative university that survives by selling degrees to the rich and at all costs not letting 'real intellectuals' to enter. So when the Prime Minister appoints his most socialist of ministers, Sir Godber Evans - an ex Porterhouse student, to the post of Master the rest of the Fellows are united to prevent his 'radical changes' going forward. However the hero/villan of the story is not the Dean, the Bursarer or the Chaplain but the Colleges Porter - Skullion. Skullion, the 45 year serving head Porter has no illusions that it is as much his duty as any one elses to prevent the new master from fixing what is not broken, and he will do anything he can!

This book is more than funny, it is witty, clever and above all totally beliveable. When you read Tom Sharpes work it is hard to believe that his books are nearly 30 years old, yet as relevant as ever. If you love people like Ben Elton and his dry humourous, yet realistic books then you will LOVE Tom Sharpe who invented it!

BUY THEM ALL!