Blott on the Landscape

The Blurb:

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 show more 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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My thoughts:

If I had read a physical copy of this book, I would probably think it was pretty good. However, I listened to the audiobook narrated by David Suchet, and his narration thrust this into the realms of hilarity. The story is nothing if not convoluted, and the levels of ridiculousness grow with each chapter – but it’s all written so well and with such wit that you can’t help but laugh out loud.

The synopsis above only scratches the surface of double dealings and dirty deeds committed by most of the characters, it does sometimes require concentration to keep up with who is doing what to who. However, it never sags or bores, and I really enjoyed this. I remember my Mom really enjoying the tv adaptation of this in the 1980s – David Suchet starred as the titular Blott in that series – and I can certainly see the attraction.

I would definitely recommend this book – but do yourself a favour and listen to the audio version. show less

Who’s funnier? Lee Child, P. G. Wodehouse, or Tom Sharpe? (*) What has happened to funny books these days? Most of these are old, some very old. The Goodreads best of 2016 humour category was all non-fiction (apart from an Alan Partridge autobiography which is still sort of... but not quite). There's nothing wrong with old. Except I've read or decided not to read most of them already. Where's the next great comic novelist? Same with TV. Lucky to get anything that isn't swish, poo-faced, up its own arse, wanky drama.

Remember being stuck in the library of the British Council when I was 15 I think and starting to read a borrowed copy of Blott. I’d never read anything even vaguely comic before and was quickly in absolute shuddering show more tatters. Unfortunately I was a wee specky fanny at the time and couldn’t control myself which was way too embarrassing as the library was jam full of raging adults and weirdly quiet. I kept trying to get a hold of myself and stop laughing. Put the book down, stared at my shoes, all of which made it worse when I battered on a few pages and ended up blowing snot bubbles all over the sofa in the reading room. Later on I bought “Blott on the Landscape”. So many people often asked me why I was laughing so much that they had to borrow the book...eventually the people who borrowed the book lent it to people who wondered why they were laughing so much ...and then they lent it to other people....and I never got the book back !!!!!!!!!... I hate you all!!!.... Bastards!!!
Within a month I think I’d tanned everything he’d written and rattled onto Wodehouse. But the most I've guffawed at a book is when reading Tom Sharpe. From the razor sharp satire of his South Africa books, to his excellent social commentary in the “Wilt On High” and Porterhouse books he always had me roaring with laughter. He abandoned his edge for curmudgeons in his last few books but they still excelled in farce. I recall re-reading “The Throwback”, his tale of inbred aristocrats, and understanding why Cameron et al were such useless sods. You see books advertised as being 'Like Tom Sharpe' but, in reality, none of them are. No-one has captured the sheer farce of his books and think a bit of badly-written smut and bad language is all that it takes. It's “Blott on the Landscape” for me every time I need to cheer myself up.

Un-PC British romping farces! The way he brought his characters to life on the page and the comical antics that they got up to during the seemingly mundane activities of life always made me laugh out loud and was perhaps unique to Tom Sharpe's way of writing.

NB (*): Close call. First things first. Jeeves and Wooster: The episode of Gussie dressed as the devil after a fancy dress ball and the taxi driver clutching the railings made me fall of the sofa with laughter. Honoria Glossop 'with a laugh like a troop of cavalry going over a tin bridge'. I fell in love with them at about 12 and I still have deep affection for them. Gussie Fink-Nottle, 'face like a fish', lives on forever. I must admit that when I was reading Boris Johnson's column in the Telegraph I always hear the voice of a Wodehouse chinless wonder in my head…But I think nothing beats Lee Child. Anything by Lee Child is always improved by the knowledge that Lee takes himself seriously; after a while every novel becomes about when, how, or if Jack Reacher will manage to change his underpants. I few years ago I went on cruise to the Greek islands; the library on the ship was fully stocked up with Lee Child books; his or her readers were happy to discard them afterwards. With nothing else to read, I got started and must confess, the logistics around him not stinking due to his 'travel light' policy was the most gripping thing about the books! I can’t wait to read “Blue Moon” coming out this month. Will Reacher finally change his underpants I wonder? show less

If you're a fan of British humour, and by British humour I mean truly horrifying things happening to people so vile that it's funny rather than off-putting, you have to read Tom Sharpe.

His first 2 books (Indecent Exposure and Riotous Assembly) are satires on the apartheid-era South African police force so biting they got Sharpe tossed out of the country.

Since then, he's turned his satiric gaze on the Brits, and the results are often laugh-out-loud funny.

Blott is an Italian gardener (who's not really Italian) who works for Lady Maud Lynchwood, whose family has lived in Handyman House for 500 years. Lady Maud, who has a...strong personality, opposes a motorway that would cuth through her property and require the destruction of Handyman show more House. Her husband, Sir Giles Lynchwood, secretly welcomes the motorway, as he stands to make some shady money on it, plus he hates Lady Maud and Handyman House. Throw in a forgetful mistress, acts of eco-terrorism, and an estate full of live lions and trouble is just bound to ensue. show less

Sir Giles a un siège au Parlement, un château et une femme - mais est-ce qu'on peut appeler ça une femme ? Lady Maud a un siège au cané, un château et un mari - mais est-ce qu'on peut appeler ça un mari ? Sir Giles est impuissant ; Lady Maud n'est pas près d'oublier leur nuit de noces. Elle n'a rien d'une bombe sexuelle mais elle veut un héritier. Comment susciter une brise de désir chez son masochiste de mari ? Chacun sa méthode. Il suffit, dans le cas présent, de faire passer une autoroute en plein cour du domaine séculaire. Les convoitises se déchaînent alors â un rythme effréné. Les juges rescapés d'empoisonnements alimentaires piétinent leur fierté d'hier ; les hauts fonctionnaires tombent très bas ; les masos show more tournent sado et inversement ; les jardiniers culbutent les ladies au beau milieu des plates-bandes. Jusqu'à l'embrasement final. show less

Blott on the Landscape by Tom Sharpe is very British: in its setting, and in the background ideas (wealthy, titled persons using clout to get what they want no matter what is best for their community). Sharpe's characters may remind readers of Monty Python (or Frye and Laurie!) but the chap who comes out on top is unique and it is worth reading to meet Blott.

Pretty much your standard mix of Sharpe's ouevre: sex, violent explosions, a dose of politics, and financial skullduggery. Some memorable characters do help, like Blott, the ex-POW who perhaps absorbs too much English literature and political speechifying. If you like Sharpe, good enough. But reading too many of his novels gives you the impression he's simply ringing the changes on the same theme.

July 2018 reread - still a good book but I was more distracted this time around so I didn't find it quite as funny...

4 stars for the book & 4.5 stars for this audiobook edition. David Suchet was brilliant as the narrator; his different voices for the characters were so varied that at times it was hard to believe that they were all being done by the same person!

I found the humor in this often vulgar and yet never offensive. It was sort of a mish-mash of Benny Hill & P.G. Wodehouse -- the zany plot was very Wodehousian but the sex and the language was more Benny Hill. While that description sounds like something I would not enjoy very much, I often found myself laughing aloud during this.