Summary of The Old Devils
Alun Weaver, a popular but vain poet and television personality, returns to his native Wales, where he reconnects with old friends in the local pub and has love affairs with some of their wives.
Reasons to read The Old Devils
“The Old Devils” is a novel soaked in alcohol, rich in comic situations, pub crawls, sarcastic remarks, and sharp dialogue. Beneath the surface, it deals with themes of old age, married life, Welsh identity, and loneliness. Kingsley Amis won the Booker Prize in 1986 with this novel. Martin Amis, son of the author and writer of the novels “Money”, “London Fields”, and “The Zone of Interest“, considered “The Old Devils” as his father’s masterpiece. Other notable works by Kingsley Amis include “Lucky Jim”, “The Green Man”, “Ending Up”, and “The Alteration”.
Setting: Swansea (Wales, UK)
The novel is set in South Wales, likely in a fictionalised version of Swansea, where Kingsley Amis lived and lectured at Swansea University.
Original title: The Old Devils
Year of publication: 1986
Nr of pages: 320
