History Literature / RiotousAssembly

* RomanAClef: The book is high farce taken up to eleven, but there is the interesting correspondence of names and identities between Bishop Hazelstone and the real life Bishop Trevor Huddleston, who was deported from South Africa in contentious, ambiguous, and fiercely debated circumstances. It is generally accepted that the apartheid regime was trying to smear and discredit a vocal opponent, but it is undeniable that after his return to England, the British police found cause to question him on allegations of sexual abuse of young boys in his new clerical posting (they dropped the investigation on the grounds of lack of proof). Controversy rumbles on.

* RomanAClef: The book is high farce taken UpToEleven, but there is the interesting correspondence of names and identities between Bishop Hazelstone and the real life Bishop Trevor Huddleston, who was deported from South Africa in contentious, ambiguous, and fiercely debated circumstances. It is generally accepted that the apartheid regime was trying to smear and discredit a vocal opponent, but it is undeniable that after his return to England, the British police found cause to question him on allegations of sexual abuse of young boys in his new clerical posting (they dropped the investigation on the grounds of lack of proof). Controversy rumbles on.

A novel combining Farce and Satire by English comic writer Creator/TomSharpe, who was thrown out of UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra South Africa for being a "subversive".

Employing a deft and very amusing mixture of slapstick comedy and extreme irony, Sharpe gives a lacerating account of the Hazelstone family's war against the cruelty and incompetence of the police force of a provincial town in South Africa during the apartheid era. From the lowliest member of the force, Konstabel Els, to the senior officer, Kommandant van Heerden, they are shown to be uniformly inept and unimaginative and eventually come to rue the day they dared complain about the behavior of Miss Hazelstone or her brother, Bishop Hazelstone of Barotseland. The town of "Piemburg" is a thinly disguised version of ''Pietermauritzburg'', where Sharpe lived and worked for ten years. Whether he is satirizing real people is up for debate, although it is known that one British-born Anglican bishop in South Africa who was opposed to apartheid had more than a usual parochial interest in the welfare of young African men in his flock. His name was not a million miles removed from "Hazelstone", either (See RomanAClef, below).

* AmoralAfrikaner: most of the white characters qualify. Easily.

* BigotWithABadge: The book and its [[Literature/IndecentExposure sequel]] are set in Apartheid UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica. Naturally, they feature bigots with badges, especially Konstabel Els, who joined the police force so he could kill and rape Blacks ''legally''.
* BilingualBonus: The word "Verkramp" has a rafter of colloquial meanings in Afrikaans: ''constipated, crazy, poisoned''...
* BlackIsBiggerInBed: Played for ''seriously'' black humor. The novel begins with the horror evinced by Kommondant van Heerden of the Piemburg Police Force, when he realises the pillar of respectable white society, Lady Hazelstone, murdered her black cook when he refused to continue having sex with her. It becomes not only a murder case but confronts the [[WhereDaWhiteWomenAt unspeakable horror of a white woman actually ''wanting'' to have sex with a Zulu]]. He is further horrified when Lady Hazelstone casually confesses to both crimes - and adds that she used various drugs to enhance both the size and duration of her lover's erection, as she directly injected these into his penis, it explains his reluctance to continue the affair and her murder of him.
* BoomerangBigot: [[KillerCop Konstabel Els]], who makes the rest of the unashamedly racist Piemburg police force look like angels of mercy, is himself mixed-race and passing as white. Kommandant von Heerden is well aware of this, but it's implied he's keeping a lid on it, simply because Els is a cop.

* KillerCop: Konstabel Els joined the police force to be allowed to legally kill black men and rape black women.
* MeaningfulName: ''Verkramp'' has a rafter of meanings in Afrikaans: ''constipated, crazy, mentally deranged, politically conservative.''

* MoreDakka: When Els loses permission to fire the Judge Hazelstone's elephant gun (see: There Is No Kill Like Overkill), he borrows the Browning machine guns from the Saracen armoured cars, then jury rigs the four of them to fire simultaneously. [[spoiler:Ironically, he hits only one target: the vulture.]]

* PoliceBrutality: The entire Piemburg force, plus Konstabel Els, who is in a league of his own.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: It's hard to think of a white character who isn't this. Special points to Konstabel Els, who doesn't even believe blacks are human.
* RaceFetish: White policemen consider sexually assaulting black female prisoners a rare perk in an underpaid job. Kommandant van Heerden himself is not averse - but when he feels the need, he takes it over the border to brothels in Portuguese Mozambique, which isn't breaking any South African racial separation law. Liutnant Verkramp, his resident secret policeman, duly keeps a file on his boss to bring out when the time is right.
* RomanAClef: The book is high farce taken UpToEleven, but there is the interesting correspondence of names and identities between Bishop Hazelstone and the real life Bishop Trevor Huddlestone, who was deported from South Africa in contentious, ambiguous, and fiercely debated circumstances. It is generally accepted that the apartheid regime was trying to smear and discredit a vocal opponent, but it is undeniable that after his return to England, the British police found cause to question him on allegations of sexual abuse of young boys in his new clerical posting (they dropped the investigation on the grounds of lack of proof). Controversy rumbles on.

* TitleDrop: Kommandant van Heerden orders a stage battle between white and black actors to stop, calling it "a violation of the Riotous Assemblies Act."
* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: "Piemburg" is a real place. It is based on Pietermauritzberg in Natal, where the author lived and worked until he was deported as an undesirable. The military base in P-berg is called ''Fort Napier'', after an eminent Victorian. While there is no doubt Sharpe based his city on a real place, it should also be noted there is a ''second'' city in South Africa where the locals also contract the name to P-berg: ''Pietersburg'' in the old Transvaal (also known as Polokhwane).

* RomanAClef: The book is high farce taken UpToEleven, but there is the interesting correspondence of names and identities between Bishop Hazelstone and the real life Bishop Trevor Huddlestone, who was deported from South Africa in contentious, ambiguous, and fiercely debated circumstances. It is generally accepted that the apartheid regime was trying to smear and discredit a vocal opponent, but it is undeniable that after his return to England, the British police found cause to question him on allegations of sexual abuse of young boys in his new clerical posting (they dropped the investigation on the grounds of lack of proof). [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment Controversy rumbles on]].

* RomanAClef: The book is high farce taken UpToEleven, but there is the interesting correspondence of names and identities between Bishop Hazelstone and the real life Bishop Trevor Huddlestone, who was deported from South Africa in contentious, ambiguous, and firecely debated circumstances. It is generally accepted that the apartheid regime was trying to smear and discredit a vocal opponent, but it is undeniable that after his return to England, the British police found cause to question him on allegations of sexual abuse of young boys in his new clerical posting (they dropped the investigation on the grounds of lack of proof). [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment Controversy rumbles on]].

* HopeSpot: [[Els's "death" is this to Piemburg's entire black population.]]

* BlackIsBiggerInBed: Played for ''seriously'' black humor. The novel begins with the horror evinced by Kommondant van Heerden of the Piemburg Police Force, when he realizes the pillar of respectable white society, Lady Hazelstone, murdered her black cook when he refused to continue having sex with her. It becomes not only a murder case but confronts the unspeakable horror of a white woman actually ''wanting'' to have sex with a Zulu. He is further horrified when Lady Hazelstone casually confesses to both crimes - and adds that she used various drugs to enhance both the size and duration of her lover's erection. [[note]]As she directly injected these into his penis, it explains his reluctance to continue the affair.[[/note]]

** As well as the Huddelstone correspondence, a parrticularly autocratic colonial governor of South Africa, whose remedy for even the slightest sign of rebellion by black tribes was to send out a heavily armed punitive military force, a man whose actions contributed to the outbreak of the Zulu War, was ''Sir Theophilus Shepstone''.

* RomanAClef: The book is high farce taken UpToEleven, but there is the interesting correspondence of names and identities between Bishop Hazelstone and the real life Bishop Trevor Huddlestone, who was deported from South Africa in contentious, ambiguous, and firecely debated circumstances. It is generally accepted that the apartheid regime was trying to smear and discredit a vocal opponent, but it is undeniable that after his return to England, the British police found cause to question him on allegations of sexual abuse of young boys in his new clerical posting (they dropped the investigation on the grounds of lack of proof). [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement Controversy rumbles on]].

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: Practically a trademark of the Hazelstone family, aside from the genetic cowardice of their patriarchs. Sir Theophilus Hazelstone used 10-inch naval guns at twelve yards, Judge Hazelstone had a four-barreled elephant gun built that could incapacitate (or, as Els thought, kill, or possibly evaporate) a charging pachyderm at 1,000 yards, and Miss Hazelstone owns a very large collection of them, all in perfect working order.

* SecretPolice: Liutnant Verkramp.

A novel combining Farce and Satire by English comic writer Creator/TomSharpe, who was thrown out of TheApartheidEra South Africa for being a "subversive".

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ra2_6989.JPG

* BlackIsBiggerInBed: * Played for ''seriously'' black humor. The novel begins with the horror evinced by Kommondant van Heerden of the Piemburg Police Force, when he realizes the pillar of respectable white society, Lady Hazelstone, murdered her black cook when he refused to continue having sex with her. It becomes not only a murder case but confronts the unspeakable horror of a white woman actually ''wanting'' to have sex with a Zulu. He is further horrified when Lady Hazelstone casually confesses to both crimes - and adds that she used various drugs to enhance both the size and duration of her lover's erection. [[note]]As she directly injected these into his penis, it explains his reluctance to continue the affair and her murder of him.[[/note]]

* RaceFetish: White policemen consider sexually assaulting black female prisoners is a rare perk in an underpaid job. Kommandant van Heerden himself is not averse - but when he feels the need, he takes it over the border to brothels in Portuguese Mozambique, which isn't breaking any South African racial separation law. Liutnant Verkramp, his resident secret policeman, duly keeps a file on his boss to bring out when the time is right.
* RomanAClef: The book is high farce taken UpToEleven, but there is the interesting correspondence of names and identities between Bishop Hazelstone and the real life Bishop Trevor Huddlestone, who was deported from South Africa in contentious, ambiguous, and firecely debated circumstances. It is generally accepted that the apartheid regime was trying to smear and discredit a vocal opponent, but it is undeniable that after his return to England, the British police found cause to question him on allegations of sexual abuse of young boys in his new clerical posting. (they dropped the investigation on the grounds of lack of proof). [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement Controversy rumbles on]].

Employing a deft and very amusing mixture of slapstick comedy and extreme irony, Sharpe gives a lacerating account of the Hazelstone family's war against the cruelty and incompetence of the police force of a provincial town in South Africa during the apartheid era. From the lowliest member of the force, Konstabel Els, to the senior officer, Kommandant van Heerden, they are shown to be uniformly inept and unimaginative and eventually come to rue the day they dared complain about the behavior of Miss Hazelstone or her brother, Bishop Hazelstone of Barotseland. The town of "Piemburg" is a thinly disguised version of ''Pietermauritzburg'', where Sharpe lived and worked for ten years. Whether he is satirizing real people is up for debate, although it is known that one British-born Anglican bishop in South Africa who was opposed to apartheid had more than a usual parochial interest in the welfare of young African men in his flock. His name was not a million miles removed from "Hazelstone", either (apologies. He's still alive and there are such things as libel laws).

[[caption-width:346:cover art from paperback edition]]

Emplying a deft and very amusing mixture of slapstick comedy and extreme irony, Sharpe gives a lacerating account of the Hazelstone family's war against the cruelty and incompetence of the police force of a provincial town in South Africa during the apartheid era. From the lowliest member of the force, Konstabel Els, to the senior officer, Kommandant van Heerden, they are shown to be uniformly inept and unimaginative and eventually come to rue the day they dared complain about the behavior of Miss Hazelstone or her brother, Bishop Hazelstone of Barotseland. The town of "Piemburg" is a thinly disguised version of ''Pietermauritzburg'', where Sharpe lived and worked for ten years. Whether he is satirizing real people is up for debate, although it is known that one British-born Anglican bishop in South Africa who was opposed to apartheid had more than a usual parochial interest in the welfare of young African men in his flock. His name was not a million miles removed from "Hazelstone", either. (Apologies. He's still alive and there are such things as libel laws.)

followed by the sequel ''Literature/IndecentExposure''.

* BadCopIncompetentCop: van Heerden and Verkramp.
* BlackIsBiggerInBed: * Played for ''seriously'' black humour. The novel begins with the horror evinced by Kommondant van Heerden of the Piemburg Police Force, when he realises the pillar of respectable white society, Lady Hazelstone, murdered her black cook when he refused to continue having sex with her. It becomes not only a murder case but confronts the unspeakable horror of a white woman actually ''wanting'' to have sex with a Zulu. He is further horrified when Lady Hazelstone casually confesses to both crimes - and adds that she used various drugs to enhance both the size and duration of her lover's erection. [[note]]As she directly injected these into his penis, it explains his reluctance to continue the affair and her murder of him.[[/note]]
* GrandeDame: Miss Hazelstone

* PoliceAreUseless: the entire Piemburg force.
* PoliceBrutality: the entire Piemburg force, plus Konstabel Els, who is in a league of his own.
* SecretPolice: Liutnant Verkramp
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: Practically a trademark of the Hazelstone family, aside from the genetic cowardice of their patriarchs. Sir Theophilus Hazelstone used 10-inch naval guns at twelve yards, Judge Hazelstone had a four-barreled elephant gun built that could incapacitate (or, as Els thought, kill, or possibly evaporate) a charging pachyderm at 1,000 yards, and Miss Hazelstone owns a very large collection of them, all in perfect working order.

A novel combining Farce and Satire by English comic writer {{Tom Sharpe}}, who was thrown out of TheApartheidEra South Africa for being a "subversive".

!! Character list:-

* BaaBomb: the exploding ostriches that plague Piemberg.