The title of this usage guide was obviously inspired by its famous ancestor published in 1881, by George Washington Moon. As for the title of Amis’s book, being called “the King” was “a nickname he tolerated”, according to his son Martin.

Amis’s book was published posthumously in 1997, and, with only a single reprint the year after that, it was great news to read the announcement in The Guardian on 27 May this year that it would be reprinted again, this time with a preface by Martin (also a well-known novelist).

The book makes fabulous reading: it approaches language issues with exactly the same kind of humour as we are familiar with from Kingsley Amis’s novels. Great stuff and definitely a good buy!