Vintage Stuff

Vintage Stuff is a novel of British comic writer Tom Sharpe which was written and originally published in 1982. Set in Groxbourne, a parody of Bloxham School where Sharpe received his education, the novel follows the (mis)adventures of Peregrine Clyde-Brown.

Plot Summary

Peregrine Roderick Clyde-Brown is a guileless and dim-witted teenager, who literally takes every phrase or words spoken to him. This is where the author displays his skill in playing with the English language, His wealthy father, wishing to get rid of him and his mother, having high hopes on him as a 'late bloomer', finally manage to get him admitted to Groxbourne school. In a school, asynchronous to its surrounding, Peregrine's tendency for taking orders and having negligible individual thought seem perfect for a promising career in the upper ranks of the British Army. Here at Groxbourne that Peregrine meets Mr Gladstone, a teacher like others in the school whose methods involved teaching arithmetic and using the cane. After Gladstone drags the loyal and obedient boy off on a seemingly romantic quest, Peregrine ends up storming a French castle, where he commits havoc and even murder, whose effects would span countries and affect everyone around him.

Critical reception

"When Tom Sharpe turns his attention to a very minor public school- the result is predictably savage. Hoaxes, chases, car crashes, shootings, and general mayhem. Wicked riotous humour" (Daily Telegraph)

"Wildly hilarious pot-shots at the public school system and the sacred cows of adventure fiction" (Observer)

"You'll enjoy this wild and, in places, wildly funny story- It is all an hilarious send-up of the Dornford Yates style of thriller with some modernistic Sharpe barbs added" (Daily Express)

"One of our best contemporary comic writers- very, very funny" (Birmingham Evening Mail)

"Excellently funny" (Auberon Waugh, Daily Mail)

References

1. http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2013/06/tom-sharpe-nearly-killed-me/ Spectator news. Retrieved February 13, 2016

2. http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=6303480291 Book review, abebooks.com. Retrieved February 13, 2016

3. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/798397.Vintage_Stuff Book review, goodreads.com. Retrieved February 13, 2016