Tom Sharpe farce as his ashes are dug up

IT IS a chaotic, almost farcical tale that would not have been wildly out of place in one of his comic novels.

But the twists and turns associated with the unauthorised burial of Tom Sharpe’s ashes in a remote Northumberland churchyard are real.

When Sharpe died in 2013, a funeral service was held for him in Spain where he had owned a house since 1994. However, Montserrat Verdaguer Clavera, his partner of 10 years, discovered documents in which he had written of his desire to return to the church in Thockrington where his father, the Rev George Sharpe, was buried.

As a result, the neurologist made a 1,200-mile pilgrimage from their home in Llafranc on the Costa Brava, with his ashes. On arrival, she dug a hole with her bare hands and conducted her own impromptu service, burying alongside the ashes items including the pen with which he wrote many of his most famous novels, including Wilt, Porterhouse Blue and Blott on the Landscape.

When details of the burial emerged the following year in a local newspaper, the Diocese of Newcastle contacted Dr Verdaguer who claimed that only an empty container had been buried.

Unconvinced, Euan Duff, chancellor of the diocese, ordered that a dig be carried out. The ashes were duly unearthed and Mr Duff recorded he was “as certain as he can be that the remains found were human”.

He has now issued an ultimatum to Dr Verdaguer stating that she must pay £1,320 costs, upon which she can have back the unearthed ashes from the church yard.