TOM SHARPE: LIFE AND WORK

PERSONAL LIFE

Thomas Ridley Sharpe –better known as Tom Sharpe- is a well-known British writer who has become very popular during the last decades due to his sarcastic and ironical style of writing.

Sharpe was born in 1928 in the city of London. He studied in Lancing College, Sussex, from 1942 to 1946, year in which he joined up the Royal Marines, where he served for two years. After that, he attended lessons at Pembroke College, Cambridge, from 1948 to 1951. In this year, Sharpe moved to South Africa, more specifically to the city of Natal, where he worked as a social worker for one year. In 1952, and until 1956, he worked as a teacher in the same city. In 1956, he decided to move to Pietermaritzburg, where he devoted to photography for five years.

However, Sharpe did not agree with some of the national policies that were in force at that moment.

We have to take into account that things were very different fifty years ago. We cannot forget either the historic context of the country of South Africa in the fifties: Nelson Mandela was still fighting against the National Party regime in order to obtain some of the fundamental rights the Apartheid denied to coloured people. The oppressive political system did not like people who spoke too much, and Sharpe did speak too much –at least, that is what Afrikaners thought, and consequently Sharpe was accused of sedition -incitement of insurrection against lawful authority- and was imprisoned and later banished from the country.

Therefore, Sharpe returned to the United Kingdom, where he lectured in History at Aylesbury Secondary Modern School, Buckinghamshire, from 1961 to 1963, and at Cambridge College of Arts and Technology from 1963 to 1971.

In 1971, he became a full-time writer.

In 1986, his novel Wilt on high was awarded the Trente-troisième Grand Prix de l'Humour Noir Xavier Fornere.

PUBLICATIONS

Novels

1971: Riotous Assembly.

1973: Indecent Exposure.

1974: Porterhouse Blue.

1975: Blott on the Landscape.

1976: Wilt.

1977: The Great Pursuit.

1978: The Throwback.

1979: The Wilt Alternative.

1980: Ancestral Vices.

1984: Vintage Stuff.

1984: Wilt on High.

1994: Stirring the Pot.

1995: Grantchester Grind: A Porterhouse Chronicle.

1996: The Midden.

2004: Wilt in Nowhere.

2009: The Gropes.

2010: The Wilt Inheritance.

2011: The Wilt Alternative.

Plays

Sharpe’s first theatrical work was produced when he was living in South Africa:

1961: The South African.

· Television Plays. Some of Sharpe’s novels have been brought to screen:

1978: She Fell among Thieves, adapted by Sharpe from the novel by Dornford Yates.

1987: Porterhouse Blue, television series adapted from the homonymous novel.

1989: Wilt, film adapted from the homonymous novel.

STYLE

There are several important facts that influenced the hilarious and ironic personal style of Sharpe’s work. First of all –and probably the most conclusive one- is the period in South Africa.

Even so, the great majority of his published work is based on the British society, always shaped by his singular satirical interpretation.

Whatever the plot be, the satire of social groups is what gives that outstanding uniqueness to Sharpe’s work.

South African novels

As we said earlier, Sharpe had a particular point of view about the political and social situation occurring in South Africa during the fifties. Sharpe’s worth lies in the fact that he was able to reflect this particular perspective in each and every one of his novels and plays, where the reader finds a series of characters whose odd personalities are taken to the extreme of surrealism.

One of the most popular characters in Sharpe’s first novels is the Afrikaner –person who belongs to the ethnic group of northwestern European settlers; and also the Boer – a more distinct subgroup of Afrikaners that involves some significant religious and political backgrounds.

After Sharpe’s first published novels, Riotous Assembly and Incident Exposure, the main themes take a turn, and the writer focuses his attention on British society.

British novels

In this period, Sharpe helps himself to the gentry British sector to offer the reader some of the most amusing novels of all his career, in which he mixes again the extreme personality of bizarre characters with the most hideous as much as outrageous situations one can imagine.

In this context, one of Sharpe’s best-known characters is born: the henpecked, downtrodden father and husband, Henry Wilt, who usually gets involved in third parties’ devious plans without meaning it. However, he will always find a way to escape safe and sound, becoming the hero of an increasing saga of adventures and misadventures that has given the author worldwide renown.

CONCLUSION

Some authors consider Sharpe’s style has been clearly influenced by two former novelists: Evelyn Waugh –an important literary figure and prolific writer and journalist; and H. H. Munro, better known as Saki –English master of the short story. Both of them shared with Sharpe the scathing and mischievous writing style, used to satirize the English society.

Sharpe has found the most enjoyable as well as provocative way to highlight some of the British society topics, and only by reading his work can anyone appreciate the real value of it.

ACTIVITIES

o 1) Do you know what an Afrikaner is? Can you write the name of any famous Afrikaners?

o 2) Do you know what a Boer is? What are the main differences between Afrikaners and Boers?

o 3) Work in pairs. Imagine that you are a henpecked husband and your partner is the bossy wife. You want your daughters to attend state school, but she insists to take them to an expensive, public school. Try to reach an agreement with her. Do not forget she wears the trousers.

o 4) Would you be able to write a short story in which a bizarre and satirical situation took place? Read it aloud.

o 5) Look for some information about Evelyn Waugh and Saki. Try to read any of their works. Then look for any similarities with Sharpe.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.biography.jrank.org [Visited on 10/08/2011].

http://www.biografiasyvidas.com [Visited on 10/08/2011].

http://www.infobiografias.com [Visited on 10/09/2011].

http://www.lecturalia.com [Visited on 10/09/2011].

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk [Visited on 10/09/2011].

http://www.encyclopedia.com [Visited on 10/09/2011].

http://www.wikipedia.com

http://forum.wordreference.com