Tom Sharpe - Blott on the Landscape
This novel, by Tom Sharpe, was first published in 1975 and was later adapted into a 6-part television series for the BBC in 1985.
When I got my moden whiz-bang mobile phone, my mate Russ set up an audiobook reader on it for me and gave me a number of audiobooks to get me going. This audiobook, read by David Suchet, was amongst them and I listened to it over a weekend when driving up to Wangaratta and return. Interestingly, David Suchet plays the part of Blott in the BBC 6 part series so I must source that next to watch it.
I think the book was even more enjoyable as I was listening to it being read by David Suchet. Earlier this month, Lois and I had seen him in the stage play The Last Confession in Melbourne. And I think I must have seen every episode of Poirot.
What a ripsnorting story of intrigue and shifting fortunes. The ending is perhaps never in doubt but the real fun is how it is achieved. I laughed out loud at various times when driving so I wonder what other drivers thought if they saw me through the window! Written very much in the manner of P. G. Wodehouse, I recommend it wholeheartedly.
Here is a nice summary of the plot:
The landscape is flawless, the trees majestic, the flora and the fauna are right and proper. All is picturesquely typical of rural England at its best. Sir Giles, an MP of few principles and curious 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.
But Lady Maude enlists a surprising ally in her enigmatic gardener Blott, a naturalised Englishman in whom adopted patriotism burns bright. Lady Maude's dynamism and Blott's concealed talents enable them to meet pressure with mimicry, loaded tribunals with publicity and chilli powder, and requisition orders with wickedly spiked beer.
This explosively comic novel will gladden the heart of everyone who has ever confronted a bureaucrat, and spells out in riotous detail how the forces of virtue play an exceedingly dirty game when the issue is close to home.
This novel, by Tom Sharpe, was first published in 1975 and was later adapted into a 6-part television series for the BBC in 1985.
When I got my moden whiz-bang mobile phone, my mate Russ set up an audiobook reader on it for me and gave me a number of audiobooks to get me going. This audiobook, read by David Suchet, was amongst them and I listened to it over a weekend when driving up to Wangaratta and return. Interestingly, David Suchet plays the part of Blott in the BBC 6 part series so I must source that next to watch it.
I think the book was even more enjoyable as I was listening to it being read by David Suchet. Earlier this month, Lois and I had seen him in the stage play The Last Confession in Melbourne. And I think I must have seen every episode of Poirot.
What a ripsnorting story of intrigue and shifting fortunes. The ending is perhaps never in doubt but the real fun is how it is achieved. I laughed out loud at various times when driving so I wonder what other drivers thought if they saw me through the window! Written very much in the manner of P. G. Wodehouse, I recommend it wholeheartedly.
Here is a nice summary of the plot:
The landscape is flawless, the trees majestic, the flora and the fauna are right and proper. All is picturesquely typical of rural England at its best. Sir Giles, an MP of few principles and curious 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.
But Lady Maude enlists a surprising ally in her enigmatic gardener Blott, a naturalised Englishman in whom adopted patriotism burns bright. Lady Maude's dynamism and Blott's concealed talents enable them to meet pressure with mimicry, loaded tribunals with publicity and chilli powder, and requisition orders with wickedly spiked beer.
This explosively comic novel will gladden the heart of everyone who has ever confronted a bureaucrat, and spells out in riotous detail how the forces of virtue play an exceedingly dirty game when the issue is close to home.
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