Editions

You Can't Do Both

You Can't Do Both

RELEASED 17/12/2020

Brought to you by Penguin.

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 1994 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Reviews

  • 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

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About the Author

Kingsley Amis

Kingsley Amis's (1922-95) works take a humorous yet highly critical look at British society, especially in the period following the end of World War II. Born in London, Amis explored his disillusionment in novels such as That Uncertain Feeling (1955). His other works include The Green Man (1970), Stanley and the Women (1984), and The Old Devils (1986), which won the Booker Prize. Amis also wrote poetry, criticism, and short stories.

Kingsley Amis

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