Tom Sharpe

Thomas Ridley Sharpe (30 March 1928 – 6 June 2013) was an English satirical novelist, best known for his Wilt series, as well as Porterhouse Blue and Blott on the Landscape, which were both adapted for television.

Born in 1928 in Croydon, Sharpe was an alumnus of Pembroke College, Cambridge, before moving to South Africa for a decade then being deported for sedition for speaking out against apartheid. He returned to England to lecture before spending time between the UK and Spain, writing a series of novels. He died in 2013 from complications of diabetes. His ashes were interred in the graveyard at the remote Northumberland church at Thockrington, where his father had been a preacher.

Life

Sharpe was born in Croydon (or Holloway and brought up in Croydon). Sharpe's father, Rev George Coverdale Sharpe, was a Unitarian minister, who was active in far right politics in the 1930s. Rev Sharpe was chairman of the Acton and Ealing branch of The Link and a member of the Nordic League who declared that he hated Jews "in the sense that he hated all corruption". Sharpe initially shared some of his father's views, but was horrified on seeing films of the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Tom Sharpe (musician)

Tom Sharpe is an American born musician, composer and recording artist who is principal performer and artistic director of the Sharpe World Music Ensemble. He is best known as the drummer for the Grammy award winning group, Mannheim Steamroller, as well as Dennis DeYoung, a founding member of the rock band STYX.

The title track of his debut CD Like Setting Myself on Fire was voted Grand Prize Winner - World Music Song of the Year by the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. "Trance-formation”, another album track, received honors as one of three finalists in the same category.

On October 28, 2014 Sharpe released his second solo CD Lifting the World via Marathon Records.

Sharpe is an alumnus of the Interlochen Arts Academy and holds the degrees Bachelor of Music and Master of Music from DePaul University in Chicago.

Tom Sharpe is endorsed and represented by the Yamaha Corporation of America, Sabian Cymbals, Vater Sticks and Mallets, Aquarian Drum Heads, Black Swamp Percussion, HipTrix Glowing Percussion, the Illinois Arts Council, and Urban Gateways Center for Arts Education.