Customer Reviews
HIGHLY READABLE GUIDE TO WRITING - By: B. McCanna, 18 Oct 2008 
In this slim volume, Kingsley Amis imparts more wit & wisdom than you're likely to come across in tomes twice the size or more. It's a delight to read cover to cover, & then to dip into as the need arises. Whilst you're unlikely to agree with every one of KA's pronouncements, you will be stimulated to ask yourself why not. Although its primary aim is proper English, as opposed to the mongrel variety we are now subjected to on a daily basis, French expressions come in for discussion, as also does the odd Latin phrase. If you want to be highly amused, mildly exasperated & discreetly educated, then you will not be disappointed.
Witty, opinionated, indispensable - By: PB HUNT, 06 Feb 2003 I keep Fowler next to my desk, which works well as a reference book when you have a specific question. This is an ideal companion volume, & being much more digestible is in many ways more useful. It works best as a book to dip in to, & made me laugh out loud several times. A guaranteed cure for dogmatic pedants...
A witty guide through the pitfalls of English usage - By: , 01 May 2001 
This book firstly relies on the reader being first pernickity about the use of language, second grouchy & third susceptible to Amis' (by this stage familiarly comic) right-wing act. Although there is little doubt that Amis held his political views firmly, he also revelled in the avuncular role of the curmudgeon, & it is in this light that the book should be viewed. Published posthumously, The King's English (and an entry on the pun is included) sets out Amis' manifesto on the usage of the language. Any reading of his fiction will have shown preoccupation with the correct use of language. As befits an author so deft at writing comicallly realistic dialogue, this often appears in observations about the spoken word (for example, see the following exchange from Jake's Thing, between Jake & his new doctor:
'Now your trouble is that your libido [lib-eedo] has declined.'
'My what?' asked Jake, though he had understood alll right.
'Your libido, your sexual drive.'
'I'm sorry, I'd be inclined to pronounce it lib-ighdo, on the basis that we're talking English, not Italian or Spanish, but I suppose it'll make for simplicity if I go along with you. So, yes, my lib-eedo has declined.'
The book lists Kingsley's musings in alphabetical order. He distinguishes between those abusers of the language he describes with the popular expletives for one who engages in onanism, & a person of uncertain parentage, & he details his shibboleths by which to judge the standard of a person's English. (Incidentallly, Microsoft Word wants to change the word 'onanism', which it underlines in red, to 'unionism.' In The King's English, Amis puts his case for the typewriter over the word-processor, but he may have appreciated the right-wing revisions of my Microsoft software.) The tone is light, & the author frequently on the wind up, but the book does serve as a way to steer between correct use & over-correct use (where the writer would be subject to ridicule).
Not quite Fowler's English Usage, but an idiosyncratic, witty & as with everything Amis Senior, thoroughly entertaining addition to a reference shelf.
