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Wilt #3

¡Ánimo Wilt!

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La endiablada capacidad de crear conflictos de Wilt, llega en esta novela a sus más altas cotas de peligrosidad. En los lavabos del Politécnico donde es profesor aparece muerta por sobredosis la hija de un distinguido lord británico. Una inmejorable oportunidad para que el amargado inspector Flint reavive sus ansias de venganza, tras su fracaso en el caso de la muñeca hinchable. Entretanto, Wilt atraviesa una difícil situación financiera: sus repulsivas cuatrillizas acuden a una costosa escuela especial para niños superdotados, por lo cual se ve obligado a hacer horas extras. Entre sus nuevos alumnos figuran un delincuente preso en una cárcel cercana y que aparentemente es uno de los jefes de la red de traficantes, así como los oficiales norteamericanos de una base de misiles. Por otra parte, su esposa intenta renovar las menguadas energías eróticas de su esposo y le suministra subrepticiamente un horrible afrodisíaco. La acción se desencadena: el asesino McCullum aparece muerto en su celda, la base aérea es puesta en estado de alerta máxima por infiltración de un espía soviético y el ardor sexual de Wilt se descontrola totalmente. Qué duda cabe de que nuestro héroe está en peligro... pero la rolliza Eva está decidida a salvar a su cónyuge a toda costa.

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

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About the author

Tom Sharpe

87 books557 followers
Tom Sharpe was an English satirical author, born in London and educated at Lancing College and at Pembroke College, Cambridge. After National Service with the Royal Marines he moved to South Africa in 1951, doing social work and teaching in Natal, until deported in 1961.

His work in South Africa inspired the novels Riotous Assembly and Indecent Exposure. From 1963 until 1972 he was a History lecturer at the Cambridge College of Arts and Technology, which inspired his "Wilt" series Wilt, The Wilt Alternative, Wilt on High and Wilt in Nowhere.

His novels feature bitter and outrageous satire of the apartheid regime (Riotous Assembly and its sequel Indecent Exposure), dumbed- or watered-down education (the Wilt series), English class snobbery (Ancestral Vices, Porterhouse Blue, Grantchester Grind), the literary world (The Great Pursuit), political extremists of all stripes, political correctness, bureaucracy and stupidity in general. Characters may indulge in bizarre sexual practices, and coarser characters use very graphic and/or profane language in dialogue. Sharpe often parodies the language and style of specific authors commonly associated with the social group held up for ridicule. Sharpe's bestselling books have been translated into many languages.

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5 stars
863 (26%)
4 stars
1,290 (39%)
3 stars
946 (29%)
2 stars
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15 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 103 reviews
Profile Image for Eba Munoz.
Author 45 books194 followers
June 4, 2025
29/ 2025

¡ÁNIMO, WILT!

Esta lectura ha sido un sí, pero no. Me explico:

Descubrí a Sharpe con el primero de la saga, WILT, que me sedujo con aquella historia disparatada con la muñeca hinchable y ese humor británico que casa muy bien conmigo. Fue terminar esa novela y arrasar la librería de segunda mano con todos los títulos que encontré de él.

Entre ellos estaba este, que pensé que podría leerse de forma independiente, pero no. Entre ambos hay otro libro, donde imagino que veremos nacer a las diabólicas cuatrillizas y otra serie de acontecimientos a los que se alude constantemente en esta novela.

Por eso la experiencia ha sido tan descafeinada, por la información que me faltaba y por recurrir todo el tiempo a hechos de la primera entrega, que no tenía demasiado fresca.

Además, el momento de la base aérea me ha cargado un poco. Digamos, y bien dicho, que, aunque la historia era entretenida (y loca, y surrealista, muy Wilt todo), no me he reído tanto.

Mención aparte los fallos de corrección en el texto, demasiado abundantes para pasarlos por alto.

Calidad de la obra: 7
Disfrute: 6,5
Profile Image for Thomas Stroemquist.
1,655 reviews148 followers
June 9, 2025
"How can the same sh*t happen to the same guy twice?” was surely inspired by the not-so-innocently unfortunate Wilt - or in this case, three times… Not that it’s strictly “the same”, but extreme and unexpected for sure. This time it’s a veritable rollercoaster, parts are brilliant, but parts are just too much (for me at least). It lands on an “it was ok”-rating, because all in all it was, but I’d enjoyed a bit more restrained (and potentially down edited) version more. I’ll take a break now, but I’m sure I’ll be back for more.
Profile Image for Redfox5.
1,653 reviews58 followers
July 14, 2018
Another funny book from the Wilt series. I must of missed a book as he and Eva now have quads, four very intelligent but misbehaving little girls. They have a tendency to upset the neighbours.

Wilt is still at the Tech and has managed to get himself in a ridiculous situation involving a gang boss and an American Airbase.

Laugh out loud funny!
Profile Image for Stela.
1,073 reviews438 followers
January 22, 2021
N-are rafinamentul lui Lodge, dar e simpatică - mi-a plăcut mai mult decît scriitura lui P.G. Wodehouse în orice caz.
Profile Image for Peter.
736 reviews113 followers
August 25, 2016
“Do go on,' he said. 'There's nothing I enjoy more than listening to a highly trained intelligence leapfrogging common sense and coming to the wrong conclusions. It gives me renewed faith in parliamentary democracy.”

This book is the third of five humourous books about the hapless Henry Wilt. Henry Wilt is Head of Liberal Studies at Fenland Technical College, husband of Eva and father of four demonic girl quads. As well as his duties at the college he also teaches a serial criminal at a nearby prison and teaches British Culture at an American airbase to help fund his daughters' fees at a fee-paying school. Things soon get out of hand when when a student at his college and the prisoner he is teaches both die of drug overdoses and he is suspected of drug dealing. Meanwhile his wife decides their sex life needs perking up adulterates his home brew with herbal stimulants. When Wilt's begins to behave oddly during one of his weekly teaching stints at the local US airbase, he's suspected of being a Russian spy.

If you have read any of the other Wilt book don't expect anything particularly new or novel. Wilt is still a hapless character who somehow gets himself into some pretty embarrassing situations and whilst I must admit that at times I had tears of laughter running down my face there is no doubt that there is an over-reliance of what could best be described as bathroom humour where painful male genitalia afflictions abound. That said if you are just looking for a good laugh then you can do worse.
Profile Image for Nigeyb.
1,475 reviews404 followers
February 5, 2025
Wilt On High (1984) (Wilt #3) is my favourite of the Wilt books so far. Everything is turned to 11. The plot is fabulously over the top and Wilt is subjected to even more indignity, to such an extent that it makes the events of the first two books seem like a stroll in the park.

As always the humour is outrageous and some of the social attitudes jar all these decades later yet this frequently had me howling with laughter. I'm willing to forgive a lot for something so laugh out loud funny. Tom Sharpe is up there with Wodehouse in terms of his ability to tickle my funny bone.

Looking forward to the final two books in the series which I don't think I read back in the day. Happy days.

5/5




Wilt is still teaching at the Fenland Tech, attempting to drill English into plasterers, dozing through tedious committee meetings and occasionally getting mildly plastered in 'The Pig in a Poke' with one of his few bearable colleagues. But the even tenor of his days is rudely interrupted when the shadow of drug dealing flickers across the Tech. Suddenly Wilt becomes the target of suspicion. His colleagues believe him to be responsible for triggering a departmental inquiry, and his old adversary Inspector Flint, knowing that he's guilty of something, sees a chance to settle a number of scores. What his wife thinks is... well, what all wives think. But what none of them have reckoned with is Wilt's talent for making new enemies. What starts with an accusation of voyeurism in the staff lavatory (of the wrong gender to boot) leads, more or less directly, to a massive confrontation at a nearby US airbase with the forces of law and order on both sides and Wilt in his usual place- in the middle.


Profile Image for Aurélien Thomas.
Author 9 books121 followers
November 3, 2021
Third tome of the Wilt adventures, in which we meet again our poor man, average and bored teacher now having been promoted at the head of its department.

Hysterical, insane, hilarious, fast-paced... Tom Sharpe here surpasses himself! Drug dealing, revengeful police officers, paranoid soldiers, his wife keen upon rekindling their sexual life and more, and more (and more!) here's a crazy cocktail of farcical adventures where it's difficult to remain calm let alone sane! The best in the Wilt series? I, for one, surely laughed out loud this time!
Profile Image for Gary.
3,030 reviews427 followers
August 7, 2021
The 3rd book in the Wilt series by Tom Sharpe.
Tom Sharpe has the ability to make you laugh out loud.
I loved this series and one of the few series that left me laughing out loud much to other people bewilderment.
Great fun characters and fun plots that are described to perfection. I really must read more of this author.
It is bringing a smile to my face just thinking about it now.
Profile Image for Anayansi.
30 reviews13 followers
January 17, 2016
Me reí muchísimo. Nada como un poco de humor negro inteligente mezclado con la mala suerte del pobre Wilt. Definitivamente de mis personajes literarios favoritos.
Profile Image for Josafat.
36 reviews1 follower
June 23, 2025
Como en los otros de la saga, la locura y los malentendidos sustituyen a la razón y al orden. Wilt, aunque no lo quiera, es incapaz de comunicarse correctamente con los otros, sirviendo como surtidor de interpretaciones erróneas para lo que hace y piensa.
Al crear estas situaciones, poniendo todo de cabeza, Tom Sharpe aprovecha para mostrar las debilidades en estructuras sociales y políticas, con la audacia de su humor e irreverencia.
Profile Image for Hannah Polley.
637 reviews11 followers
July 21, 2019
I was very excited to return to Wilt as I find Tom Sharpe hilarious and I very much enjoyed the previous Wilt book I had read. The book did not disappoint and the depiction of Wilt living a life with quad daughters and Eva was as funny as ever.

Another completely ridiculous plot where Wilt is suspected of being a drug pusher and then a spy. Eva helps with his rescue again along with the quads.

Another great read.
Profile Image for Gregg.
507 reviews24 followers
October 11, 2022
Typical madcap English comedy of errors, but so peculiarly satisfying. This time, Henry Wilt finds himself in the crosshairs of both Mi5 and the Central Intelligence Agency, the victim of a drugging by his wife in order to get him a permanent erection and the revenge fantasies of Inspector Flint. He’s assaulted by an inspector’s wife wearing Nazi lingerie, has to lecture at a lectern with a hard on to conceal, deal with his four twin daughters and their Machiavellian plots, accede to a violent prison inmate’s demand to smuggle drugs, assuage his own wife’s obstinate demands to be the husband she wants, and I don’t even know what all else. Maybe a little teaching on the side too.

Tom Sharpe died in 2013, which is how I discovered these books. I don’t remember anything about his personal life making his obituary, but every now and again these novels take a dark turn toward a philosophical insight that now, in 2022, it’s hard to contradict. At the end of this novel, when Wilt is about to make a break for freedom after being at the mercy of all these intelligence agencies, his mind turns towards a bleak future:

“[The military airbase] had all the characteristics of a potential extermination camp. True, nobody was being herded into gas chambers and there was no smoke rising from crematoria. But the blind obedience to orders was there, instilled in Glaushof and even in colonel Unwin… The others would all obey orders if the time came and the real holocaust would begin. And this time there would be no liberators, no successive generations to erect memorials to the dead or learn lessons from past horrors. There would only be silence. The wind and the sea the only voices left. And it was the same in Russia and the occupied countries of Eastern Europe. Worse… no TV cameras or photographers depicted the new death camps. And 20 million Russians had died to make their country safe from genocide, only to have Stalin’s successors too afraid of their own people to allow them to discuss the alternatives to building more machines to wipe life off the face of the earth.“

Wilt always ends these novels at the pub with a friend, “smiling into his beer,” planning temporary rewards and claiming his own small victories over his own circumstances. There’s definitely a lesson in there for us all.
Profile Image for Maria João Fernandes.
368 reviews40 followers
December 19, 2014
"Os dias só são normais quando nada corre mal."

Terceiro livro da série do Wilt. O humor, tipicamente britânico, continua a criar vários momentos divertidos. Mas, no fundo, é mais do mesmo. Gostava que as personagens fossem devolvidas e houvesse uma evolução no tempo, mas apesar de o tempo passar, tudo se mantém relativamente na mesma. Eva podia ser menos previsível e as quatro gémeas seriam mais interessantes se fossem um pouco mais que um grupo de meninas absurdas, maníacas e irritantes. Há incidentes que relembram o livro anterior, nomeadamente com o orgão sexual de Wilt e apesar de conhecermos um novo polícia (porque Wilt tem sempre problemas com a lei), o inspector Flint volta a fazer a sua aparição, mas muito menos surpreendente. As minhas expectativas eram elevadas, esperava algo diferente, talvez um despertar da passividade de Wilt, uma mudança. Acho que algo mais normal seria, neste caso, algo diferente.

"As pessoas podem mudar e mudam as suas vidas de um momento para o outro e de modo assaz fundamental."
346 reviews7 followers
February 10, 2023
Tom Sharpe is really one of those most immaculate humorists who can write with a Wodehouse-esque flair. He's like a Rated R version of Wodehouse but nonetheless as enjoyable. After having discovered Porterhouse Blues, I was truly excited to explore Sharpe's oeuvre. The Wilt series is about cantankerous professor Henry Wilt caught between a thoroughly uncooperative society throwing spanners in his work and an oppressive household with his bossy wife and precocious children. Wilt in High is about Henry Wilt getting caught in the crosshairs of a student's death. His involvement is further complicated as old enmity between him and officer Flint resurfaces, his wife secretly feeds him sketchy aphrodisiacs and the Americans misconstrue him to be a Russian Spy. Of course Sharpe is a masterful storyteller, weaving a remarkable yearn peppered with lots of mistaken identities, indecent exposure and knucklehead officers. This is a truly lovely work of British humor
Profile Image for Jane.
199 reviews1 follower
August 10, 2011
Typically British. I wonder how the author came up with the "icing syringe and herbal Viagra" plot line... I wish Eva's character was more developed-- I would have liked to see her as more than just a frigid housewife, and I wish the quads were more that just absurd, maniacal plot distractions. Oh well.
Profile Image for Kasa Cotugno.
2,755 reviews587 followers
August 17, 2011
i read the wilt books years ago and laughed all the way through Enjoy!
Profile Image for Andrew.
702 reviews19 followers
May 11, 2018
It was all insane, childish and bestial. But above all it was banal. (Wilt On High, Pan, 1984, p.346).
With a finger up at political correctness, Sharpe is at times a little more than irreverent. He lambasts the education system, which harbours as many ineffectual self-serving careerists as does any corporate entity, including the police force, which has its fair share of blackly-amusing colleague-tramplers; he pokes fun at women ban-the-bomb campaigners while deferring admiration for their bravery, plain common sense and humanity, and we find Wilt - subject to all of these vicissitudes - perhaps the sanest of the bunch, with the most common sense. But that doesn’t stop him from being put through the ringer in this one.

In a style largely amusing, there are the occasional belly-laughs and the occasional sane rant. Wilt may be imbroiled in the machinations of an Albion we are only, most of us, too pleased to have left behind if not lived through, where the Greenham Common women took up the banner of the CND and Britain was an aircraft carrier for the US and education cuts were a stoke of genius in order to balance the budget deficit after selling off North Sea Oil to the Europeans and the Yanks - yet not quite as bright an idea as making the citizens of its government pay for their higher education as well as paying off loans on top of taxes for the remainder of their term. But hey! Things have definitely improved.
Half the world's population is starving and the overfed half have a f***ing death-wish... (p.339).
Profile Image for Rashmi  Rao.
16 reviews1 follower
March 26, 2019
I don't know if I love Wilt or I hate him for feigning indifference in general. However, Wilt is a man not to be ignored. In fact, the Local Coppers couldn't have asked for more trouble when they get 'A Cop's intuition' on the wrong guy-Wilt. What's more they not just waste their time on him but also end up in a greater mess. American Airbase in Fenland also gets Jinxed soon after Wilt gets forcefully grounded in it's premises.
Wilt's personal life is not tranquil either. There are four ingenious young daughters who refuse to talk to their father directly but quiz about him to their mother in his presence. They can be safely called as trouble tickets. Wilt's wife, Eva is considered dominating by her husband but she complains lack of assertiveness on Wilt's part. The more you read the more you get enmeshed in this chaotic, humours tale of Wilt and his Jinx factor. I enjoyed the book thoroughly for it's brilliant humour.
Profile Image for Neil Challis.
519 reviews10 followers
January 19, 2020
Wilt creates the usual carnage in the latest offering.Always in the middle of everything that goes wrong either at work or play, with a set of young quads whom appear to be borderline psychotic and a faithful wife who puts up with him some how.This involves a criminal kingpin who he teaches in prison:lectures given to a group of ladies on a US air Base and his normal?job teaching at a local tech.
a pupil dies of an overdose,she is the daughter of a wealthy benefactor and the police need to get a result.The detective in charge is out to get Wilt as he made him look foolish from a previous case involving a blow up doll!(I kid you not).
All in all a good romp ,could see a Carry on type film being made of this series, don't understand why is isn't already.Easy read.
Profile Image for Josh T.
320 reviews4 followers
July 6, 2017
4.5/5

A wonderful motley of humor as usual. There were more laugh out loud moments in the previous book, but plenty enough in this one as well. It was nice to see old Flint rewarded for a change and thoroughly pleasing to see dumb Hodge demoted. And I must say, Wilts four hellspawn daughters are positively amusing with every scene they're presented in! Of the hilarity of vile filthy mouthed yet innocent children spouting off profanity and provocative inquiries and statement of explicit nature. Much fun is had in reading this third Wilt novel. I recommend it, and the others, to anyone looking for a good chuckle, an easy read, and a twisted obscene scene.
Profile Image for A.
549 reviews
October 12, 2019
Another hilarious entry in the Wilt chronicles. This one has Wilt quickly going downhill after finding a poor dead coed in the restroom at his college. He winds up in custody and being threatened with torture and various deaths at the hands of british and American secret service folks. Also includes the herbalist lady who prescribes natural medicine to wives to either up and lower the husbands libido. Top shelp.
Profile Image for Leslie Munday.
Author 3 books2 followers
February 18, 2023
Not as funny as the previous 2 books. Sharpe is re-using similar characters from his S.Africa novels and previous Wilt novels, also re-using the penis comedy from WA. The sex mad wife of the authority figure in order to get information from Wilt, was a little OTT.
I didn't find myself laughing out loud, but once it got moving I had trouble putting it down.
A great squeal to the previous Wilt books.
Profile Image for clara.
331 reviews
March 13, 2025
4/5

Muy buena sátira. Me he reído MUCHO y en voz alta, eso es buena señal. Quizás tiene puntos que por su contexto y época de publicación están ya desfasados, pero en general buen libro. Es divertido, ameno y MUY original. Me tendré que leer las demás novelas de la saga.

Que conste que he empezado por el tercero porque mi profe de historia me lo robó de la biblioteca del colegio al acabar el curso.
Profile Image for Cinuco.
85 reviews1 follower
February 25, 2021
En este tercer volumen, Wilt vuelve con fuerza. La historia es original y dentro de lo extraordinario de Wilt, lo sucedido en este volumen es más probable que en la segunda novela. Un buen uso de los protagonistas, cada vez con más protagonismo dentro de las novelas y un uso bastante acertado de lo que podría llegar a suceder si mezclas determinados elementos. Con ganas de seguir la historia!
Profile Image for Maricarmen Alabau.
346 reviews2 followers
February 20, 2024
Pues las disparatadas aventuras de este señor, con una facilidad extrema para meterse en mil líos a la vez, alcanza su máxima cota. En esta ocasión casi crea un conflicto internacional. Las cuatrillizas van a peor (no parecía posible) y Flint queda resarcido por todos los males que ha sufrido con Wilt y su familia.
Profile Image for Jeremy.
754 reviews17 followers
September 6, 2017
Loved this one. The most outlandish plot imaginable with a laugh a minute at pompous academics. He used the term educated idiot, I had no idea it was in use in the early 1980s lol. Loved the quads too, or this that 4?
Profile Image for Sonia.
302 reviews11 followers
July 28, 2019
Wilt no defrauda. Ni él, ni su peculiar familia. Sus líos cada vez son mas inverosímiles, pero aún así, no dejan de divertirme. La escena final de esta parte me ha hecho soltar alguna carcajada. Muy recomendable a quien le guste el humor un poco peculiar.
Profile Image for Denis.
86 reviews2 followers
January 10, 2021
Очарование первой книги и немножечко второй уже совсем прошло. Да, сюжет по-прежнему развивается, местами интересно, но как-то уж слишком все лоскутно и местами рваное повествование. Видно, где автор хотел, чтобы читатель посмеялся, но не смешно. В общем, на любителя.
Profile Image for Derick Parsons.
Author 7 books228 followers
August 11, 2021
Ok

Nowhere near as good as the first two but mildly entertaining, if madly impossible and even rather silly. The ingredients were all more or less there but it just wasn’t very funny.
Profile Image for Isabel Vela.
33 reviews
February 4, 2025
Entretenido. El pobre Wilt entra en un bucle de desgracias que de puro absurdas tienen su gracia.
Este libro lo leo porque me lo encuentro en el parque un lunes de diciembre, después de ir a buscar a la peque. "Si lo quieres leer, cógelo". Y lo cogí. Ahora a devolverlo para que siga su viaje:-)
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