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The Old Devils

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The Old Devils

By: Kingsley Amis
Narrated by: David Sibley
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Malcolm, Peter and Charlie and their Soave-sodden wives have one main ambition left in life: to drink Wales dry. But their routine is both shaken and stirred when they are joined by professional Welshman Alun Weaver (CBE) and his wife, Rhiannon.

©1986 Kingsley Amis (P)2021 Penguin Audio Classics Fiction Historical Fiction Literature & Fiction World Literature Comedy

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All stars
Most relevant
Contrary to another review here, I thought this was very well read. That said, I'm not Welsh, so may not be as discerning about the finer points of the accent.
A great listen.

Most enjoyable

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Have read this, oh, 16 times since it was published 38 years ago: and Sibley brings out slynesses I hadn't picked up on from the printed page. Amis admitted ruefully that he'd written a corker.

Subtle.

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It is too much, really, the drinking. Otherwise it is not an uninteresting book, but was it really worth a booker price…? Somehow, I get the feeling that he won the price for warlier works, as an encore, not because this was such a banger in its own right.

The drink, please let them stop!

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At the start, it was nice listening to the Welsh accents, but after a while I couldn't really tell or remember who was who and which character was which. I soldiered on, but realised that nothing much was ever going to happen, so gave up.

Boring

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This book begins with a Welsh accent so bad as to make it unlistenable. Had to listen to it a number of times to understand what was being said. I can only assume that all the Welsh actors were busy when they recorded it, since I see no good reason for a book set in Wales concerning Welsh characters to be read by an English actor with a wandering plastic boyo accent.

Warning! Narrator issue!

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