Riotous Assembly is the debut novel

Debut novel

A debut novel is the first novel an author publishes. Debut novels are the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to publish in the future...

 of British comic writer Tom Sharpe

Tom Sharpe

Tom Sharpe is an English satirical author, best known for his Wilt series of novels.Sharpe was born in London and moved to South Africa in 1951, where he worked as a social worker and a teacher, before being deported for sedition in 1961...

 originally published in 1971. Set in the fictitious South African town of Piemburg it is a savagely amusing lampoon of the forces of law and order in apartheid era South Africa.

Plot Summary

With a very amusing mixture of slapstick comedy and extreme irony Mr. 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 apartheid. 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 the Bishop of Barotseland.