The King’s English: A Guide to Modern Usage - Softcover

‘Learned, robust, aggressive, extremely funny... Magnificent’
Sebastian Faulks, New Statesman

‘Always a delight. Consistently, enormously enjoyable’
Jonathon Green, Punch

‘Fabulously well written... marvellous’
Candia McWilliam, Independent on Sunday

Posthumously published, the great man’s trenchant, provocative and authoritative guide to the use and abuse of the English language.

Sir Kingsley Amis, who died in 1995, occupied a unique position in the world of English letters: elder statesman, former angry young man, latter-day curmudgeon and, above all, comic novelist of genius. In all his work, and throughout his life, the use and abuse of the English language was one of his principal concerns. The King’s English pungently, entertainingly and concisely conveys his love and knowledge of the subject to new generations of readers and writers.

Here can be found all those linguistic pitfalls (‘crescendo’, ‘disinterested’, ‘enormity’) which lie in wait for the ignorant or the careless. And if you’ve ever wondered whether it’s acceptable to start a sentence with ‘and’, or what you risk revealing about yourself by your pronunciation of ‘liqueur’, or whether or not to cross your 7s in the French style, Amis has the answer.

By turns reflective, acerbic, combative and controversial, The King’s English will find a place on the shelves of anyone who values the English language and cares about the way in which it is used.