Tom Sharpe (1928 – 2013) was educated at Lancing and Pembroke College, Cambridge. He did his National Service in the British Marines before going to South Africa in 1951, where he did social work for the Non-European Affairs Department before teaching in Natal. He had a photographic studio in Pietermaritzburg from 1957 until 1961, when he was deported. From 1963-72 he was a lecturer in history at the Cambridge College of Arts and Technology. His second novel, the sequel to Riotous Assembly, is called Indecent Exposure. His other novels include The Great Pursuit, Wilt, Porterhouse Blue and Blott on the Landscape. Sharpe died on 6 June 2013 in Llafranc, in Costa Brava, from complications of diabetes. He was 85 years of age.