History Literature / Wilt

* EarthMother: Eva is a prime example of the cranky underappreciated kind of Earth Mother.
* {{Farce}}

* HenpeckedHusband: Henry.

* PsychoLesbian: [[spoiler:Sally Pringsheim.]]

* TinyGuyHugeGirl: Henry and Eva.

Henry Wilt is in his early 40s and is a man facing a mid-life crisis. A graduate of Cambridge University, his later life was not one of stellar gilded brilliance propelling him to the top in the Civil Service, politics, academia, Creator/TheBBC, or any of the careers usually red-carpeted or fast-tracked for Oxbridge graduates. No, Henry has sunk into suburban mediocrity as a Liberal Studies tutor at the Fenland College of Technology. He isn't even Head of Liberal Studies, as his dissatisfied wife Eva regularly complains to him. In fact, he is, to quote Wikipedia, "a demoralized and professionally under-rated assistant lecturer who teaches literature to uninterested construction apprentices at a community college in the east of England."

His wife, Eva, is a dissatisfied woman who mixes socially with the wives of professional academics who did so much better than Henry and who have better clothes, better cars, better kitchens and better houses. She relates this dissatisfaction to Henry at every opportunity. And better children? Eva is the sort of larger-than-life woman who does everything to excess. As of the second novel, she's added to Henry's woes by becoming the mother of quads, all girls and all taking after their mother, who are being brought up in an atmosphere of laissez-faire parenting and regurgitated feminist slogans that even their mother only half-understands.

* AuthorAvatar: Henry Wilt is based loosely on Sharpe himself, and his experiences teaching in the shallow end of Britain's intelligence pool, with particular reference to overarching academic vanity and office politics in higher education.

* UsefulNotes/BritishUnis: Fenland Technical College, or at least its ambitious senior staff, would dearly love to become one (despite the fact they would almost inevitably become a shabby third-tier institution). Unfortunately their first steps to this goal, of becoming accredited to teach ridiculous meaningless pompously titled degrees, are scuppered by the police digging up "Eva" from the cement.
** Averted in that Fenland Tech is a fairly obvious {{Expy}} of what was then the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology (CCAT), where Sharpe himself taught for some years. The construction of the extension dates the book fairly closely. CCAT did in fact, become the basis for Anglia Ruskin University in 1992.

* HilariousInHindsight: A running theme concerns the office politics and academic infighting among the faculty staff at Fenland Tech [[note]]American readers, think "community college" with all that implies for underfunding, under-resourced, academically unglamorous, and demoralised staff[[/note]]. Fenland Tech lives in the shadow of an ancient, world-renowned and prestigious university; a goodly number of the FT staff, including Henry Wilt, are graduates of that university and live in envy of their better-placed peers, and are hideously aware they inhabit a stagnant backwater of education. Sharpe wrote the books as a RomanAClef TakeThat against his old employer, CCAT. Fenland's senior academics have grandiose schemes for offering degree courses, are victims to every fad going, and long for the day when they can rebrand as at least a polytechnic and ideally a fully-fledged university. They get so embroiled in office politics that they fail to realise they can barely teach at a far lower academic level - which is what they are there for. The idea that their pretentions will be realised and the tech can become a University is presented as a monumental act of self-delusion and a collective folly indulged by barely competent mediocre academics. however - Tom Sharpe lived to see the day when CCAT actually ''did'' rebrand itself as a University - Anglia Ruskin - under a government with different priorities [[note]]Which was duly accused of dumbing down and hopelessly diluting British academic standards...[[/note]]. This is reflected in the last Wilt novel, ''The Wilt Inheritance'' (2010) in which Fenland Tech has indeed become Fenland Uni. That said, Anglia Ruskin remains towards the lower end of the hierarchy of UsefulNotes/BritishUnis...

* RecycledScript: A plot device from ''Literature/IndecentExposure''(1971) reappears here. A man arrested by incompetent and largely useless police investigators and subjected to low-level torture, who is innocent of a crime, realises the only way forward is to create a confession which is good enough to fool the police - who are willing to accept a confession and aren't prepared to look too closely at it - whilst being, at the same time, so wildly preposterous that any rational court would throw it out. Both confessions involve a food factory dealing with meat produce, which neatly explains the lack of corpse.

* [[spoiler: PsychoLesbian: Sally Pringsheim.]]

* CementShoes: Henry Wilt's farcical attempt to rehearse his fantasy murder of Eva. This involves an inflatable sex doll dressed in her clothes, the foundations of a new College building, and a cement truck.
* DisposingOfABody: Wilt, victim of an obscene practical joke involving an inflatable sex-doll, dresses it in his wife's clothes and throws it down a pile hole on a construction site (due to be filled with concrete); when his wife goes away on an impromptu holiday, Wilt must convince the police he has not disposed of her for real.

* UsefulNotes/BritishUnis: The Fenland Tech College, or at least its ambitious senior staff, would dearly love to become one. (Despite the fact they would almost inevitably become a shabby third-tier Clown College.) Unfortunately their first steps to this goal, of becoming accredited to teach ridiculous meaningless pompously titled degrees, are scuppered by the police digging up "Eva" from the cement.
** averted in that Fenland Tech College is a fairly obvious expy of the then-Cambridge College of Arts and Technology,where Sharpe himself taught for some years. The construction of the extension dates the book fairly closely. CCAT did in fact, become the basis for Anglia Ruskin University in the Blair years.
* CementShoes: Henry Wilt's farcical attempt to rehearse his fantasy murder of Eva. This involves an inflateable sex doll dressed in her clothes, the foundations of a new College building, and a cement truck.

* HilariousInHindsight: A theme concerns the office politics and academic infighting among the Faculty staff at the "Fenland Tech" [[note]]American readers, think "community college" with all that implies for underfunding, under-resourced, academically unglamorous, and demoralised staff[[/note]]. Fenland Tech lives in the shadow of an ancient, world-renowned and prestigious university; a goodly number of the FT staff, including Henry Wilt, are graduates of that university and live in envy of their better-placed peers, and are hideously aware they inhabit a stagnant backwater of Education. Sharpe wrote the books as a RomanAClef TakeThat against his old employer, Cambridge Tech College. Fenland's senior academics have grandiose schemes for offering degree courses, are victims to every fad going, and long for the day when they can rebrand as at least a polytechnic and ideally a fully-fledged University. they get so embroiled in office politics that they fail to realise they can barely teach at a far lower academic level - which is what they are there for. The idea that their pretentions will be realised and the tech can become a University is presented as a monumental act of self-delusion and a collective folly indulged by barely competent mediocre academics. however - Tom Sharpe just about lived to see the day when his old tech college actually ''did'' rebrand itself as a University - Anglia Ruskin - under a government with different priorities.[[note]]Which was duly accused of dumbing down and hopelessly diluting British academic standards...[[/note]] Although ARU remains in the fourth and lowest tier of UsefulNotes/BritishUnis...

* MistakenForMurderer
* RecycledScript: A plot device from ''Literature/IndecentExposure''(1971) reappears here. A man arrested by incompetent and largely useless police investigators and subjected to low-level torture, who is innocent of a crime, realises the only way forward is to create a confession which is good enough to fool the police - who are willing to accept a confesssion and aren't prepared to look too closely at it - whilst being, at the same time, so wildly preposterous that any rational court would throw it out. Both confessions involve a food factory dealing with meat produce, which neatly explains the lack of corpse.

* TinyGuyHugeGirl

Henry Wilt is in his early 40s and is a man facing a mid-life crisis. A graduate of Cambridge University, his later life was not one of stellar gilded brilliance propelling him to the top in the Civil Service, politics, academia, Creator/TheBBC, or any of the careers usually red-carpeted or fast-tracked for Oxbridge graduates. No, Henry has sunk into suburban mediocrity as a Liberal Studies tutor at the Ipford Tech College. He isn't even Head of Liberal Studies, as his dissatisfied wife Eva regularly complains to him. In fact, he is, to quote Wikipedia, "a demoralized and professionally under-rated assistant lecturer who teaches literature to uninterested construction apprentices at a community college in the east of England."

His wife, Eva, is a dissatisfied woman who mixes socially with the wives of professional academics who did so much better than Henry and who have better clothes, better cars, better kitchens and better houses. She relates this dissatisfaction to Henry at every opportunity. And better children? Eva is the sort of larger-than-life woman who does everything to excess. She added to Henry's woes by becoming the mother of quads, all girls, all taking after Mother, who are being brought up in an atmosphere of laissez-faire parenting and regurgitated feminist slogans that even their mother only half-understands.

Despairing of his lot, Henry starts to fantasize about killing his wife and starting all over again... and going on from here will require a lot of plot spoilers.

* A theme concerns the office politics and academic infighting among the Faculty staff at the "Fenland Tech" [[note]]American readers, think "community college" with all that implies for underfunding, under-resourced, academically unglamorous, and demoralised staff[[/note]]. Fenland Tech lives in the shadow of an ancient, world-renowned and prestigious university; a goodly number of the FT staff, including Henry Wilt, are graduates of that university and live in envy of their better-placed peers, and are hideously aware they inhabit a stagnant backwater of Education. Sharpe wrote the books as a RomanAClef TakeThat against his old employer, Cambridge Tech College. Fenland's senior academics have grandiose schemes for offering degree courses, are victims to every fad going, and long for the day when they can rebrand as at least a polytechnic and ideally a fully-fledged University. they get so embroiled in office politics that they fail to realise they can barely teach at a far lower academic level - which is what they are there for. The idea that their pretentions will be realised and the tech can become a University is presented as a monumental act of self-delusion and a collective folly indulged by barely competent mediocre academics. however - Tom Sharpe just about lived to see the day when his old tech college actually ''did'' rebrand itself as a University - Anglia Ruskin - under a government with different priorities.[[note]]Which was duly accused of dumbing down and hopelessly diluting British academic standards...[[/note]] Although ARU remains in the fourth and lowest tier of UsefulNotes/BritishUnis...

[[/folder]]

Physically, Henry and Eva Wilt fit the TinyGuyHugeGirl trope: in line with [[Creator/TomSharpe Sharpe's]] female leads, Eva is an EarthMother, a larger-than-life woman who does everything to excess, including motherhood - she is mother to quad girls, also to Henry's discomfort. And they all take after Mum...

Physically, Henry and Eva Wilt fit the TinyGuyHugeGirl trope: in line with [[TomSharpe Sharpe's]] female leads, Eva is an EarthMother, a larger-than-life woman who does everything to excess, including motherhood - she is mother to quad girls, also to Henry's discomfort. And they all take after Mum...

''Wilt'' is a 1976 comedic novel by Tom Sharpe.

Henry Wilt is in his early 40s and is a man facing a mid-life crisis. A graduate of Cambridge University, his later life was not one of stellar gilded brilliance propelling him to the top in the Civil Service, politics, academia, TheBBC, or any of the careers usually red-carpeted or fast-tracked for Oxbridge graduates. No, Henry has sunk into suburban mediocrity as a Liberal Studies tutor at the Ipford Tech College. He isn't even Head of Liberal Studies, as his dissatisfied wife Eva regularly complains to him. In fact, he is, to quote Wikipedia, "a demoralized and professionally under-rated assistant lecturer who teaches literature to uninterested construction apprentices at a community college in the east of England."

* BritishUnis: The Fenland Tech College, or at least its ambitious senior staff, would dearly love to become one. (Despite the fact they would almost inevitably become a shabby third-tier Clown College.) Unfortunately their first steps to this goal, of becoming accredited to teach ridiculous meaningless pompously titled degrees, are scuppered by the police digging up "Eva" from the cement.

* BritishUni: The Fenland Tech College, or at least its ambitious senior staff, would dearly love to become one. (Despite the fact they would almost inevitably become a shabby third-tier ClownCollege.) Unfortunately their first steps to this goal, of becoming accredited to teach ridiculous meaningless pompously titled degrees, are scuppered by the police digging up "Eva" from the cement.