Book description
Robin Davies knows how to look after number one. Raised in a bland
suburb of South London in the 1930s, Robin longs for the freedom to do
what he wants. When he escapes to study in Oxford, he meets Nancy
Bennett, a young woman even less worldly than himself. As Robin stumbles
through his rites of passage to adulthood, involving rebellion,
self-discovery, sex, war, seduction and the threat of commitment, we
come to realise just how far he will go to have his cake and eat it.
Kingsley Amis was born in south London in 1922 and was educated at the
City of London School and St John's College, Oxford. After the
publication of Lucky Jim in 1954, Kingsley Amis wrote over twenty
novels, including The Alteration, winner of the John W. Campbell
Memorial Award, The Old Devils, winner of the Booker Prize in 1986, and
The Biographer's Moustache, which was to be his last book. He also wrote
on politics, education, language, films, television, restaurants and
drink. Kingsley Amis was awarded the CBE in 1981 and received a
knighthood in 1990. He died in October 1995.
