Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #44120 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Synopsis
Timothy Brights doesn't exactly live up to his name. Brought up to regard copious flows of money as his birthright, he can't understand why the funds have been cut off, nor why friends he recruited as Lloyds' Names no longer want to talk to him. When gambling fails, Timothy turns to embezzlement, but it's the lesser offence of helping himself to some strangely aromatic tobacco that propels him up the motorway and into bed with the Chief Constable's wife. The Chief Constable has just survived charges of bribery and perjury and is not too concerned that his efforts to dispose of Timothy involve false imprisonment, breaking and entering, and a spot of GBH. It is only when the Chief tries to frame his old adversary, the upright Miss Midden, hat things begin to go seriously wrong as his underhand ploy opens up the way to spectacular mayhem.

From the Publisher
"One of our best contemporary comic writers- very, very funny." - Birmingham Evening Mail

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. From 1963 to 1972 he was a lecturer in History at the Cambridge College of Arts and Technology. In 1986 he was awarded the XXXIII-me Grand Prix de l'Humour Noir Xavier Forneret. He divides his time between Cambridge and Spain.

Customer Reviews

Warning to anyone buying this book in hardback!
I found this book really good up to page 26 - BUT then I noticed the story got a bit disjointed! This was however no fault of Mr. Sharpe; in fact pages 27 - 58 were missing and instead I had a DOUBLE HELPING of pages 59 - 90! In case you hold a copy (that you haven't of course read) or are planning to obtain one please note it was the H/B First Ed. by Andre Deutsch Ltd. 1996, and printed by Clays Ltd. St. Ives plc. I'm now looking for a replacement; it's out of print at CARLTON Books (of 20 Mortimer St., London - who now own the rights) and they have zero stock.

Well below par.
Very dissapointing offering from the 'master of the british farce'. Some clever comic situations and the usual mad characters but a little predictable. Could it be that he is not as 'Sharp'as he once was?Far funnier is Conduct Unbecoming by Chris Gaynor.This in a similar vein to Sharpe but a completely different style; however, the laughs are there by the truckload so it is well worth reading if you like this kind of book. Sorry but The Midden did not win me over.

Good - but not the usual 'sharpe' standard
This book tells the story of a depressed, middle-aged, battleaxe who suddenly finds herself the victim of the cruelest of frame-ups as a result of the local Police Chiefs hatred of her and her family. The characters are of the usual crisp Sharpe style, with their little idiosynchrasies and foibles, and the plot is as wonderfully bizarre as any of Sharpe's previous works. And yet I felt a little disappointed at the end - mainly because the usual dozen or so 'absolute-belly-laughs-with-tears' weren't present. I don't think that this book is upto Sharpe's usual standard. If you're a newcomer to the works of Sharpe, choose Ancestral Vices or Wilt or one of his other hits first - come to this one only when you've tasted Sharpe at his best. Nevertheless, The Midden still ranks way above the works of many other so-called comedy novelists.