Tom Sharpe, Wilt

Alexandre Fachard (University of Geneva)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of York), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1976

Places

United Kingdom (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

In the summer of 1974, Tom Sharpe, the author of four well-acclaimed if commercially moderately successful satirical novels, set out to write “Book Five” (Brendon 176). Provisionally titled “The Man with the Grasshopper Mind” (180), it drew on personal experience. Its protagonist Henry Wilt shares with Sharpe an ability to flit “from one idea to another, constantly seeing the world from new, unexpected and often bizarre angles” – what Sharpe called the “grasshopper mind” (13). And as Sharpe himself had done for some ten years, Wilt teaches apathetic Day-Release students at a Technical College somewhere in East Anglia. Propelled by a “sudden burst of inspiration” (146), Sharpe completed the first draft in a fortnight, with painstaking revision extending over the…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

1691 words

Citation: Fachard, Alexandre. "Wilt". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 November 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=41697, accessed 21 December 2024.]

Tom Sharpe, Wilt

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Resources

Save this article

Leave Feedback