Thomas Ridley Sharpe was born on 30 March 1928 in London, the younger of two sons by George Coverdale Sharpe, a fifty-six-year-old Unitarian minister who had two children from a previous marriage; and Grace Egerton Brown, an Australian-born South African from a wealthy family who was fifteen years her husband’s junior. A late, “unexpected and unwanted child” (Brendon 36), Sharpe had a lonely childhood marked by his family’s frequent moves to elude the authorities: his father belonged to several fascist organizations, attended Nazi rallies, and praised National-Socialism in his sermons. Had the Sharpes not led a “nomadic existence” (Brendon 48), flitting from one hideaway to another, “father would have been arrested and interned” without trial like other wartime right-wing…
1927 words
Citation: Fachard, Alexandre. "Tom Sharpe". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 November 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=15238, accessed 02 December 2024.]