The Old Devils

Kingsley Amis won the 1986 Booker for The Old Devils, which is considered by many, including his son and fellow author Martin, to be his masterpiece. A pub gathering of elderly married couples devolves into mischief in this “sharp and funny” British comedy about marriage, aging, and friendship (The Washington Post)."

"The talk is also exceedingly sharp and funny, and it brings the characters to life as only pungent dialogue can. His prose is as tart as ever, which is of course good news, but the softening effect of his feelings for his old devils is even more welcome. More than in any of his previous novels, Kingsley Amis has allowed himself to show a bit of heart; it becomes him."  -  Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post

Do people ever really grow up? These old devils are just as they have always been, but trapped in a slowly aging body. It’s like living in a house that needs repair, but the repairman never comes. When Alun Weaver and his wife, Rhiannon, a famous beauty in her day, move into a quiet retirement community, they find it peopled by friends from former days. Suddenly all the ambitions and energies, overgrown with years like weeds, burst out afresh.

"Kingsley Amis’s most ambitious book is neither a sendup nor an exercise in some established genre. It sets forth a large cast of characters rendered in depth as well as on the surface. The Old Devils is also Mr Amis’s most inclusive novel, encompassing kinds of feelings and tone that move from sardonic gloom to lyric tenderness."   -  The New York Times

Considered by Martin Amis to be Kingsley Amis’s greatest achievement — a book that “stands comparison with any English novel of the [twentieth] century” — The Old Devils confronts the attrition of ageing with rare candour, sympathy, and moral intelligence.