Comic novelist Tom Sharpe dies at 85

This is an undated handout photo issued by Random House of British novelist Tom Sharpe. Sharpe, who satirized everything from apartheid to academe in a series of best-sellers, has died at the age of 85. Sharpe's Spanish publisher, Anagrama, said he died early Thursday June 6, 2013in the Catalan town where he lived. (AP Photo/Susan Sandon/Random House/PA) NO ARCHIVE NO SALES

British novelist Tom Sharpe, who satirized everything from apartheid to academe in a series of best-sellers, has died at the age of 85.

Sharpe’s Spanish publisher, Anagrama, said he died early Thursday in the Catalan town where he lived.

Born in 1928, Sharpe sharpened his satirical axe as a young man working in South Africa. He was deported in 1961 for criticizing the apartheid regime.

Susan Sandon, Sharpe’s editor at Random House, said he was “witty, often outrageous, always acutely funny about the absurdities of life.”