The Shrapnel Academy
"The Shrapnel Academy is a military school, named for hte inventory of the exploding cannonball. It is time for the annual Eve-of-Waterloo dinner. The guest list includes General Leo Makeshift, who is to give the Wellington LEcture; his, ahem, secretary; a young weapons and torture-implement salesman; and a reporter for the feminist Women's Times (invited by mistake). If this recipe isn't enough for combustion, throw in Acorn, the South African butler, who is leading the several hundred third-world denizens of the basement in an uprising. The results are uproariously funny, but the implications below the surface are much more serious."--back cover.