Aaaargh!
Dave Kyle Thompson (Gonville & Caius 1957)
Olympia Publishers
Simon Hamartian PhD, Boadicea University's Egregius Professor of History, is on his deathbed in Heaven’s Waiting Room Private Hospital, Nursing Home, Mortuary and Crematorium (The One-Stop Mortality Service). Benedict Wimblebury, young-man-about-town and self-styled author, is tape-recording the Professor s autobiography.
This proceeds from birth in Ruislip, by way of West Westmoreland, Cambridge, Cyprus and Ndotoland in Africa, to his present predicament, and frequently features the life and extraordinary death of his only friend, Sir Gregorius Troughmoulder, eccentric master of wit and wheezes. Various other bizarre deaths also punctuate his narration.
The professor's bedridden dictation is constantly interrupted by the peculiar hospital staff, whom one by one he offends. Visitors provide information that gradually reveals to Simon, just before his death, the astonishing truth about himself and Gregorius and he achieves a sort of self-knowledge.
Aaaargh! is a jolly romp full of incident and accident, stuffed with humour, irony and wit, with a satirical portrayal of authority. Although the title represents the all-too-frequently-encountered death rattle, death itself receives light-hearted treatment.
Publication date: 9 November 2009
978-1848970113
Buy online at Heffers
Added: 11 January 2010
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