The Gropes
  • Published: 2 August 2010
  • ISBN: 9780099534686
  • Imprint: Arrow
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $24.99
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The Gropes

Formats & editions
EBook
26 May 2011
Paperback
2 Aug 2010
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A hilarious dose of British farce from Tom Sharpe, the bestselling author of Wilt and Porterhouse Blue.

It is one of the more surprising facts about Old England that one can still find families living in the same houses their ancestors built centuries before and on land that has belonged to them since before the Norman Conquest. The Gropes of Grope Hall are one such family....

The Gropes are an old English family based in Northumberland, separated from the rest of society and as eccentric as they come. It is a line dominated by strong-willed and oversexed women, determined to produce more female heirs regardless of whether their desired partners are willing ...

At the dawn of the new millennium, timid and gormless teenager Esmond is abducted and lured to Grope Hall by a descendant of the Gropes. Young Esmond is powerless to escape, and his kidnap sets in motion a stream of farcical events that will have readers laughing out loud.

Tom Sharpe's trademark humour abounds in this new novel, marking him out once again as an outstanding and unique British storyteller.
  • Published: 2 August 2010
  • ISBN: 9780099534686
  • Imprint: Arrow
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $24.99
Categories:
Share…

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

Praise for The Gropes

a vicious social satire, heavily seasoned with outrageous farce and ebullient comedy. Yes, it's always a pleasure to welcome a new novel by one of the world's funniest writers.

Times

Part of the pleasure of reading Tom Sharpe lies in his cheerful penchant for anachronism and whimsy.

Guardian

[a] rollicking plot

Sunday Times

A major craftsman in the art of farce...vengeful, chaotic, Swiftian in his tastes, cartoonish in his extremes, and above all wild and amusing

Observer

Britain's leading practitioner of black humour

Punch

Tom Sharpe serves up the loudest laughs in literary comedy. He is the great post-Waugh humorist, the Wodehouse who dares plunge into the bottomless vulgarity and hysteria of our times, and a rattling good companion on a train journey

Mail on Sunday

The funniest novelist writing today

The Times

This is a romp with many of the staples of Sharpe's bestselling comedy

Harry Ritchie, Daily Mail

The funniest novel writing today

The Times