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. ( )

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. ( )

Why on Earth did the publisher (Atlantic Monthly Press) put a picture of a well-known real Oxford college on the cover of a book about a fictional Cambridge college? Especially since the only comment about Oxford in the whole book is a humorously disparaging one? I sometimes wonder whether publishers bother to actually read the books they are preparing for publication, especially if it's a book that's been published before. ( )

"His had been an intellectual decision founded on his conviction that if a little knowledge was a dangerous thing, a lot was lethal."

Set in the late 1950's Cambridge. Porterhouse University admits male students based on the size of their families' wealth rather than on whether or not they have passed an entrance exam. It has become renowned for its sporting prowess rather than academic achievement. It has been run on similar grounds for hundreds of years and refuses to conform with modern day norms.

When an ex-politician is appointed the Master of this university, he proposes to admit students, including women, based upon academic ability rather than family wealth, financed by replacing gourmet faculty meals with a self-serve cafeteria.

The new Master is soon at war with the entire staff of the college, who want it to remain as it has been for 500 years, a place for rich young men to drink and cavort while the faculty do no work and eat like lords. His most dangerous opponent is the "Head Porter" who supervises all non-teaching activities at the college.

This is such a lovely satire of British University life with an amusing sub-plot of a researcher named Zipster. I have read other books by Sharpe in the past and although I must admit that this did not make me laugh out loud as often as with others there are elements of extreme farce that did tickle me somewhat. A lovely well crafted and very amusing book. ( )