Books, Movies & Games

This is the forth book of the Wilt series by Tom Sharpe. As usual Henry Wilt faces absurd & outrageous problems which at the same time are of his making & beyond his control. Namely an aristocratic pervert, his lover, greedy wife of a shadow cabinet minister who is an ex-prostitute & the combine forces of British & American police. Author Tom Sharpe uses Wilt to expose the farcical realities in small town to hilarious effect.

This time around Wilt goes on a walking trip around his county while his wife & the kids go to meet the aunty in US. Wilt cleverly avoids making the trip with them pretending he has work to attend to & goes on his trip the moment his family leaves England. Although Wilt intends to enjoy the normal older England as usual he falls in to trouble. He gets drunk & finds himself at the hospital. Where he claims that he has no idea what has happened. With the police suspecting Wilt to be an accessory to the burning of a manor house things get complicated pretty fast. His family been suspected of carrying drugs to US does not help the matters either. Things get pretty confusing & amusing while involving Inspector Flint, Shadow Minister, His wife & the wife’s lover- The burned manor owner before they get untangled.

Although it has the familiar feel of the previous books, I couldn’t help feeling that there was something missing. It doesn’t felt like the previous Wilt books. Of course this book has the usual jokes & outrageous behavior of the quadruplets. It felt drawn out. Like Sharpe was trying hard to be funny. All in all I would say that it is a amusing read, but not to the standard you would expect from a master satirist like Tom Sharpe.

About Tom Sharpe

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

Wilt in Nowhere Links

Amazon.com

Random House

Guardian Unlimited Books