Ancestral Vices
Tom Sharpe
  • Published: 3 January 2003
  • ISBN: 9780099435532
  • Imprint: Arrow
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $29.99

Ancestral Vices

Formats & editions
EBook
26 May 2011
Paperback
3 Jan 2003
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A hilarious dose of British farce from Tom Sharpe, the bestselling author of Wilt and Porterhouse Blue.

With his only friend a computer, Walden Yapp has lived a singular life. Professor of Demotic History at the University of Kloone, Yapp spends his days highlighting the corrupt capitalistic nature of the upper-classes, and his nights feeding Doris his computer the information he has gathered

So when capitalist Lord Petrefact hires him to write a damaging family history, Yapp seizes the chance to chronicle the corrupt life of the Petrefact family. Spurred on by his expectations of dishonesty and depravity Yapp heads of the town of Buscott, where nobody is what they at first appear to be.

Now a pawn in Lord Petrefact’s vindictive family game, Yapp’s presence is as welcome as the plague. From provoking dwarfish marital problems to uncovering an erotic toy factory Yapp’s presence sparks a chain of events that ends in death, destruction and a murder trial.

Going through a car wash will never feel the same again.
  • Published: 3 January 2003
  • ISBN: 9780099435532
  • Imprint: Arrow
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $29.99
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About the author

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 moving 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, and from 1963 to 1972 he was a lecturer in History at the Cambridge College of Arts and Technology.

He is the author of sixteen bestselling novels, including Porterhouse Blue and Blott on the Landscape, which were serialised on television, and Wilt, which was made into a film. In 1986 he was awarded the XXIIIème Grand Prix de l'Humour Noir Xavier Forneret, and in 2010 he was awarded the inaugural BBK La Risa de Bilbao Prize. Tom Sharpe died in June 2013 at his home in northern Spain.

Also by Tom Sharpe

The Wilt Inheritance
The Gropes
Wilt in Nowhere
The Wilt Alternative
Grantchester Grind
Indecent Exposure
Wilt on High
See all

Praise for Ancestral Vices

There’s almost no one funnier

Observer

An immense gift for social satire ... the action is unflagging

Daily Telegraph

A novelist who has broken out of the pack, established a wholly distinctive style ... such a keen eye for the ridiculous and marvellous ability to puncture it

Scotsman

Tom Sharpe is in top form ... outrageously funny ... Left-wing academics, right-wing capitalists, true-blue country gentry, workers, peasants, police and lawyers - all take custard pies full in the face in this boisterous knockabout farce

The Listener

They make me cry with laughter ... I think he's one of the great geniuses

Daily Mail
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