Tom Sharpe (1928-2013)
I couldn’t help laughing when I was reading “Wilt 1, Arrow Books, 2002” a novel by Tom Sharpe. I must confess that it is the funniest one I have ever read. It is about an Englishman inspector who was investigating what he tought was a murder (but as a matter of fact it was only about the disappearance of three adults). The investigator was to ask Mr Kidley, the manager of a firm that produce pork pie. Here is a short extract of the dialogue that took place between the two men:
‘It wasn’t last Sunday and there was someone here, Mr Kidney’. Said the inspector.
‘Kidley, please’, said the manager’. ´With an L.’
´Look Mr Kidley, if you work in a place like this with a name like that you’re asking for it’. Pages 283-284.
Does it serve the manager to be called Mr Kidney? I don’t think so. However, by calling him “Kidney”, the novelist wants the reader to understand that it was very hard for the inspector to keep his temper as he wasn’t making much progress with his inquiries.
calamlike 