The Shrapnel Academy

by Fay Weldon

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A weekend in the country erupts into a free-for-all of mutiny, sex, and murder On the anniversary of the Eve of the Battle of Waterloo, an assortment of unusual dinner guests gather at a remote country house to pay homage to Henry Shrapnel, inventor of the exploding cannonball. But all is not peaceful at the Shrapnel Academy: The downstairs servants, a group of third-world refugees led by a South African butler, are plotting to overthrow their upstairs oppressors. When a blizzard hits the show more countryside and traps everyone indoors, the rebellion erupts into bloody warfare throughout the Academy, a shrine to the ethos of military excellence. With characters that include a domineering female sergeant, a war-mongering general, a brain-damaged spy, and an idiot-savant arms dealer, Fay Weldon gives us a country house novel replete with sexual atrocity and class warfare. No one will emerge unscathed in this stinging tale of modern-day barbarians, where the deadliest weapons are the ever-raging battles between the haves and the have-nots.

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95+ Works 9,286 Members
Fay Weldon was born in Worcester, England on September 22, 1931. She read economics and psychology at the University of St. Andrews. She worked as a propaganda writer for the British Foreign Office and then as an advertising copywriter for various firms in London before making writing a full-time career. Her work includes over twenty novels, five show more collections of short stories, several children's books, non-fiction books, and a number of plays written for television, radio and the stage. Her collections of short stories include Mischief and Nothing to Wear and Nowhere to Hide. She wrote a memoir entitled Auto Da Fay and non-fiction book entitled What Makes Women Happy. She wrote the pilot episode for the television series Upstairs Downstairs. Her first novel, The Fat Woman's Joke, was published in 1967. Her other novels include Praxis, The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, Puffball, Rhode Island Blues, Mantrapped, She May Not Leave, The Spa Decameron, Habits of the House, Long Live the King, and The New Countess. Wicked Women won the PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award. She was awarded a CBE in 2001. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

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Common Knowledge

Original title
The Shrapnel Academy
Original publication date
1986

Classifications

Genres
Fiction and Literature, General Fiction
DDC/MDS
823.914Literature & rhetoricEnglish & Old English literaturesEnglish fiction1900-1901-19991945-1999
LCC
PR6073 .E374Language and LiteratureEnglishEnglish Literature1961-2000
BISAC

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Members
178
Popularity
184,398
Rating
(2.97)
Languages
6 — Danish, Dutch, English, German, Norwegian (Bokmål), Swedish
Media
Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
ISBNs
25
ASINs
6