The Old Devils

Alun begins associating with a group of former friends, including Peter, all of whom have continued to live locally while he was away.

Much of Alun's career has consisted of edification of a Welsh poet, Brydan, a thinly disguised stand-in for Dylan Thomas, whom Amis once met.

Amis had a low opinion of Thomas, calling him a "pernicious figure, one who has helped to get Wales and Welsh poetry a bad name and generally done lasting harm to both... the general picture he draws of the place and the people [in his work] is false, sentimentalising, melodramatising, sensationalising, and ingratiating".

The novel was adapted for television by Andrew Davies for the BBC in 1992, starring John Stride, Bernard Hepton, James Grout and Ray Smith (it was the latter's last screen appearance before his death).

"[6] It won the Booker Prize [7] The Los Angeles Times wrote, "For longtime admirers of the Amis of Lucky Jim and after, The Old Devils is welcomed evidence that the master remains masterful, able now to conjoin the mischievous with the mellow.