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.

"Acutely and poignantly observed-there is still fire in the old devil's belly" Daily Telegraph "As finely judged, as exactly observed, as vividly conceived as anything he has written" The Times "Funny, touching, well-constructed, sharply evocative of time and place and written with characteristic Amisian aplomb. It is a first class addition to his oeuvre" Spectator "Will have you whooping with delight" -- John Osborne Literary Review