The Old Devils is a novel by Kingsley Amis

Kingsley Amis

Sir Kingsley William Amis, CBE was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, various short stories, radio and television scripts, along with works of social and literary criticism...

, first published in 1986. The novel won the Booker Prize. It was adapted for television by Andrew Davies for the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 in 1992, starring John Stride

John Stride

John Stride is an English actor best known for his television work during the 1970s. Stride was born in London, the son of Margaret and Alfred Teneriffe Stride...

, Bernard Hepton

Bernard Hepton

Bernard Hepton is a British actor of stage, film and television.Hepton is known as a particularly versatile character actor. He trained at Bradford Civic Theatre school under Esme Church along with actors such as Robert Stephens...

, James Grout

James Grout

James Grout is an English actor of radio and television.Grout was born in London, the son of Beatrice Anne and William Grout...

 and Ray Smith

Ray Smith (actor)

Ray Smith was a Welsh actor who notably played the tough-talking police chief, Detective Superintendent Gordon Spikings, in the television series, Dempsey & Makepeace.- Early life :...

 (it was the latter's last screen appearance before his death). Amis's son, Martin

Martin Amis

Martin Louis Amis is a British novelist, the author of many novels including Money and London Fields . He is currently Professor of Creative Writing at the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester, but will step down at the end of the 2010/11 academic year...

, has said that he considers the book his father's finest work.

Alun Weaver, a writer of modest celebrity, returns to his native Wales with his wife Rhiannon, sometime girlfriend of Weaver's old acquaintance Peter Thomas. Weaver begins associating with a group of former friends, including Thomas, all of whom have continued to live locally while he was away. While drinking in the house of another acquaintance, Weaver drops dead, leaving the rest of the group to pick up the pieces of their brief reunion.