Absolutely zonkers

Both an alumnus to be proud of (no 80 in the series) and a practitioner of the literary sideswipe is Sean Thomas, son of novelist D. M.Thomas and a graduate of University College London's Bartlett School of Architecture. His own first novel, Absent Fathers, draws liberally on his experiences as a student, portraying students as spending most of their time zonked out on drugs and booze. And the staff are even worse: "The Bartlett was a church with just one creed: Modernism. Classicism did not exist. Gothic was virtually a swear word. Post-modernism evoked the same disgust one affords a turd that's too big to flush down a lavatory.

"In keeping with this monotheism the Bartlett lecturers were completely doctrinaire, especially the ones who revered Le Corbusier. They were the worst. When they - or their keener students - talked about Le Corb, they had a disturbing light in their eyes. A religious glow. They were disciples, initiates, fruitloops."

Sounds like one for the quality assessors.