The Old Devils

By: Kingsley Amis

Narrated by: David Sibley

A pub gathering of elderly married couples devolves into mischief in this “sharp and funny” British comedy about marriage, aging, and friendship.

Age has done everything except mellow the characters in Kingsley Amis’s The Old Devils, which turns its humane and ironic gaze on a group of Welsh married couples who have been spending their golden years—when “all of a sudden the evening starts starting after breakfast”—nattering, complaining, reminiscing, and, above all, drinking. This more or less orderly social world is thrown off-kilter, however, when two old friends unexpectedly return from England: Alun Weaver, now a celebrated man of Welsh letters, and his entrancing wife, Rhiannon. Long-dormant rivalries and romances are rudely awakened, as life at the Bible and Crown, the local pub, is changed irrevocably.

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 aging with rare candor, sympathy, and moral intelligence.

©1986 Kingsley Amis (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Do yourself a favor and buy it

Bloody brilliant, and David Sibley does a fantastic/unimprovable job of bringing a dozen or more characters to life. Amis’ finest, -not to slight Lucky Jim (a great reading of which is also here on Audible).

Great fun!

I had only ever read his "Lucky Jim" when i was young and thought it was very funny. This was a surprise. It's so sophisticated in its use of language and silence. The reader is wonderful. I don't know what Welsh should sound like but the voices are musical and subtle. These old characters are all alcoholic, treacherous, once in a while a bit sweet.

Excellent narrator. Totally boring story.

This is an extremely well written and well read novel, but it is just about one of the most uninteresting listens I have ever come across as far as the story goes. My mind kept wondering away, and I just couldn’t manage to keep my attention on it.