The Old Devils

Kingsley William Amis was an English novelist, poet, critic and teacher. He was the recipient of the Man Booker prize in 1986 for the superbly written novel The Old Devils.

The book is centered in Wales and revolves around the lives of several Welsh couples in their sixties. Alun and Rhiannon Weaver cause a commotion when they return to Wales after several years in England and begin associating with their former group of friends. Alun is a writer and is somewhat of a celebrity, and his wife Rhiannon was the girlfriend of Alums’ old acquaintance, Peter Thomas. Alun also has somewhat of a past with several ladies in the group of friends, thus causing a level of anxiety for the husbands. While drinking in the house of an acquaintance, Weaver dies suddenly, leaving the rest of the group to pick up the pieces of their brief reunion. The story is rendered in a reader-friendly prose style and is considered a brilliant novel of great honesty.