Porterhouse es un “college” de Cambridge. No destaca precisamente por su buen nivel académico pero, desde que un antiguo rector dilapidara todos sus bienes en Montecarlo, tiene graves problemas financieros y económicos. Por ello en Porterhouse se conserva y fomenta una peculiar tradición secular: excelente cocina para administradores y docentes y concesión de plazas sólo para aquellos alumnos cuyas familias estén dispuestas a “contribuir” en las menguadas arcas de la institución. Desde luego a cambio de tales donativos los títulos universitarios se “expenden” con sospechosa facilidad… Hasta que llega un nuevo rector, un ex político ingenuo y con ínfulas reformistas, y decide modernizar tan venerable y sobornable centro educativo: por ejemplo, sustituir la antigua cocina por un self-service (!), admitir la matriculación de mujeres (!!), instalar una máquina expendedora de preservativos (!!!), etc. Pero la cosa no para ahí: el bisoño rector ignora por completo el tráfico de titulaciones y, con sus empeños renovadores, hará peligrar esas prácticas consuetudinarias.

I read this book after reading the Wilt series and Indecent Exposure. I must say I was a bit disappointed. It's just that the book didn't have the same sort of manic pacing that Sharpe's other books have. The plot moved along, but I didn't really care about what was happening to the characters. While it does have some of Sharpe's trademark humor, I wouldn't recommend this book as a starting point for Tom Sharpe's work. ( )

Je l'avais lu, jeune, et avais beaucoup ri... Là, j'ai bien sur autant ri, mais j'ai trouvé dans cette farce une certaine profondeur et épaisseur humaine. ( )

I´ve lost count of the number of times I´ve read "Porterhouse Blue". What memorable characters - Scullion, the reactionary porter who hates change and fondly recalls the good old feudal days when he used to get kicked by the aristocratic students. Sir Godber Evans, the wet former cabinet minister exiled to Porterhouse and his politically correct wife, Lady Mary, who wants to introduce healthy food, condom machines and women into Porterhouse. Sir Cathcart Death, head of the Porterhouse alumni association, who has a Japanese bodyguard, holds orgies in his stately home and tells Scullion to make sure the cook gives him tea on his way out. Cornelius Carrington, the slimy TV presenter, Mrs. Biggs, the randy middle-aged cleaner who tries to seduce the unwitting student Zipser who is writing a dissertation on “The Influence of Pumpernickel on the Politics of 16th Century Osnabruck” and too many others to mention. My family still think I am nuts when I laugh out loud reading about Wilt's adventures. Perhaps only the Mortimer Rumpole escapades have had the same laugh out loud impact since then. I remember weeping with laughter at the image of the Kommandant chained to the bed and dangling from the window with a stonking erection whilst dressed in a pink latex nightdress as his men discuss whether to shoot him as a pervert. All the time my mother was asking me go explain what was so funny. Not an easy task when you were 16.

Do people frown upon at all-out satire today? There's more than enough raw material. But would anyone read a rib-tickling send up ...of the British police? Of José Socrates, our former Prime-Minister, and his financial dealings? Of the dunces that ran the banks while posing (with the cheerleading support of our esteemed newspapers… all of them) as pirate captains of the corporate world? Of our tottering political "leaders", the boys who push in front of the class and declare themselves our betters?

On a serious note, in the Porterhouse and Riotous Assembly novels, Sharpe managed to capture the awful snobbery of one institution and the ridiculous racism of another. In the 80s I would regularly see fellow passengers reading on the train home, totally riveted and often chortling away with abandon. Occasionally curiosity would get the better of me & I'd either watch for a glance of the cover or pluck the courage up to ask what they were reading.

Bottom-line: Sharpe’s books gave me so many hours of laugh-out-loud delight. Timeless humour. And I would love to think that many of today's young people would pick up Sharpe’s books to sample real humour is crafted. He has left a library of wonderfully funny books - nothing to be ashamed of. I think I might pull out Ancestral Vices for another read isn't it :-)) Any write who can make you choke back the laughter when reading on a bus has to be OK. That was the effect of “Porterhouse Blues” for me. ( )

While Sharpe has some of the style and verve of a Wodehouse or Waugh, he frequently veers towards the unnecessarily salacious. ( )