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''Blott on the Landscape'' is a novel by
Tom Sharpe
Thomas Ridley Sharpe (30 March 1928 – 6 June 2013) was an English satirical novelist, best known for his '' Wilt'' series, as well as ''Porterhouse Blue'' and ''Blott on the Landscape,'' all three of which were adapted for television.
Life ...
which was first published in 1975. The book was adapted into a 6-part
television series of the same name for
BBC television
BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...
in 1985.
Plot
The story revolves around the proposed construction of a
motorway
A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms i ...
M101 in the book and the M399 in the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
seriesthrough Cleene Gorge in rural South Worfordshirea fictional
gorge
A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...
in a fictional English county.
At one end of Cleene Gorge is Handyman Hall; the home of the
politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...
Sir Giles Lynchwood and his wife Lady Maud Lynchwood.
Sir Giles is secretly in favour of ensuring that the motorway passes through the Cleene Gorge (and is actually the originator of the plan) as it will mean he will be paid the compensation for the destruction of Handyman Hall, which is under a
covenant
Covenant may refer to:
Religion
* Covenant (religion), a formal alliance or agreement made by God with a religious community or with humanity in general
** Covenant (biblical), in the Hebrew Bible
** Covenant in Mormonism, a sacred agreement b ...
preventing its sale. While superficially pretending to be supportive he takes steps to undermine the inquiry and prevent alternatives being adopted, to ensure the new road travels through the Gorge.
By contrast, Lady Maud's family has lived in the gorge for over 500 years, and she is fiercely defensive of her heritage and expects Giles to support her.
Matters are further complicated by their on-going marital problems, including Sir Giles's
fetishist
A fetish (derived from the French , which comes from the Portuguese , and this in turn from Latin , 'artificial' and , 'to make') is an object believed to have supernatural powers, or in particular, a human-made object that has power over oth ...
infidelity
Infidelity (synonyms include cheating, straying, adultery, being unfaithful, two-timing, or having an affair) is a violation of a couple's emotional and/or sexual exclusivity that commonly results in feelings of anger, sexual jealousy, and riva ...
and Lady Maud's wish for children to continue her line (to which Sir Giles is violently opposed); and the actions of Maud's gardener, Blott, a former German
prisoner of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...
who is believed to be Italian. The German Army had become so fed up with Blott that the Nazi High Command decided to get rid of him by assigning him to an Italian bomber on a raid to England. Blott, who had served as navigatorand was not very good at itmade them completely lost and was the only survivor when his plane crashed into a mountain, whereupon he was captured, with his captors believing him to be Italian. Blott is strongly
patriotic
Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and sense of attachment to one's country. This attachment can be a combination of many different feelings, language relating to one's own homeland, including ethnic, cultural, political or histor ...
towards his new home nation and home and fiercely devoted to the Handyman family, Maud in particular. Maud's and Giles's
marriage settlement
A marriage settlement in England was a historic arrangement whereby, most commonly and in its simplest form, a trust of land or other assets was established jointly by the parents of a bride and bridegroom. The trustees were established as legal ow ...
leaves Giles with Handyman Hall in the event of a
no-fault divorce
In a no-fault divorce the dissolution of a marriage does not require a showing of wrongdoing by either party. Laws providing for no-fault divorce allow a family court to grant a divorce in response to a petition by either party of the marriage w ...
but not in the event of death or infidelity, a situation he also seeks to provoke by refusing to co-operate in his
marital duties and which Maud sees as a potential solution.
With his
military
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
training, and some leftovers of the war secretly buried on the estate, Blott begins a covert campaign including
blackmail
Blackmail is an act of coercion using the threat of revealing or publicizing either substantially true or false information about a person or people unless certain demands are met. It is often damaging information, and it may be revealed to fa ...
and
wire tapping
Overhead power cabling. The conductor consists of seven strands of steel (centre, high tensile strength), surrounded by four outer layers of aluminium (high conductivity). Sample diameter 40 mm
A wire is a flexible strand of metal.
Wire is co ...
to scrutinize Sir Giles's activities on Maud's behalf and to undermine the construction of the motorway. He also discovers and aims to foil Giles's plans. In the course of the fight for the Gorge, a picturesque nearby village is destroyed by Blott using a
demolition crane to whip up popular opposition to the works. Giles is discovered by Lady Maud and Blott in bed bound by his mistress Mrs Forthby and is blackmailed, as is Dundridge, the official in charge of the motorway construction, and the Hall is quickly converted into a wildlife park in an attempt to prevent the removal of its occupants. Giles himself is finally killed by lions when he is discovered by Blott and Maud trying to
burn down the Hall.
As a final resort, Blott concretes himself into his home, located in the entrance archway to the estate, preventing work progressing. Dundridge, frustrated and going rapidly mad with power, demands the
SAS are called in to remove Blott. Blott, after repelling their attempts to scale the arch, secretly launches an attack on his own archway for which the SAS is blamed, finally compelling enough public attention to cause the plans to be dropped. Dundridge is imprisoned for his part in the 'attack' and the destruction of the village (in which one person had been accidentally killed), and Maud and Blott (who have fallen in love by this time) marry and state their intention to add to the Handyman family.
Adaptations
1985 TV series
Audio book
* ''Blott on the Landscape'' was released as an
audiobook
An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements.
Spoken audio has been available in sc ...
in two formats: abridged by Listen for Pleasure read by
George Cole (), and unabridged by Chivers Audio Books read by
David Suchet
Sir David Courtney Suchet''England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916–2007'' ( ; born 2 May 1946) is an English actor known for his work on British stage and television. He portrayed Edward Teller in the television serial '' Oppenh ...
().
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blott on the Landscape
1975 British novels
British comedy novels
British novels adapted into television shows
Novels by Tom Sharpe
Secker & Warburg books