Sharpe practice

The English novelist Tom Sharpe, known for a life of penning dark and comic tales, is at the centre of a plot twist in his own death.

A church court has fined his partner, Dr Montserrat Verdaguer, for unofficial burial of his ashes.

Verdaguer dug a hole and buried the ashes – along with a bottle of whisky, the author’s favourite pen and a Cuban cigar – in a country churchyard in Northumberland.

But they were exhumed because it is claimed they were buried without permission of the church authorities.

Sharpe, known for Porterhouse Blue and his Wilt series, died in 2013. Verdaguer drove 1,200 miles from Spain to St Aidan’s church in Thockrington in June 2014, after discovering documents in which Sharpe had written of his desire to return to where his father, the Rev George Sharpe, had been a preacher and was later buried, the court heard.

Verdaguer, Sharpe’s partner of 10 years, dug the hole with her hands, and laid the whisky, cigar and pen in the earth with him, local press reported at the time.