| Riotous Assembly | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Tom Sharpe |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Secker & Warburg |
| Publication date | 1971 |
| Pages | 204 |
| ISBN | 0 330 23423 4 |
| Preceded by | - |
| Followed by | Indecent Exposure |
Riotous Assembly is the debut novel of British comic writer Tom Sharpe originally published in 1971.[1] 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.
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.