You Can’t Do Both - Softcover

A strongly autobiographical novel which follows Robin Davies from school to Oxford. With him we live through all of the pangs of a pre-war adolescence in South London, and on through his rites of passage to adulthood involving rebellion, self-discovery, sex, seduction and commitment.

Robin Davies is both a shrewd observer and an energetic actor in a drama which takes him from school to Oxford. With him we live through all the pangs of a pre-war adolescence in South London, and on through his rites of passage to adulthood, involving rebellion, self-discovery, sex, seduction and commitment. 'You Can't Do Both' is Amis as you know him – brilliantly funny, outrageous, and alive to every social nuance; but also as you've never seen him before, writing with tenderness and compelling insight in a story which is strongly autobiographical.

'Acutely and poignantly observed ... there is still fire in the old devil's belly.'
CHRISTOPHER STACE, 'Daily Telegraph'

'The characterisation is as persuasive as the serpentine, richly baroque prose. 'You Can't Do Both' is funny, touching, well-constructed, sharply evocative of time and place and written with characteristic Amisian aplomb. It is a first class addition to his oeuvre.'
ERIC JACOBS, 'The Spectator'

'He will have you whooping with delight that the old Amis we know and love is alive and well.'
JOHN OSBORNE, 'Literary Review'