The King's English: A Guide to Modern Usage

This book follows in the tradition of Johnson’s dictionary and Fowler’s The King’s English in adding a flavour of the personal to what might otherwise be pretty dull and descriptive endeavour. The title is of course a wink to Fowler, but Kingsley was in fact informally called “the King” by his inner circle of friends, and biographic information suggests that he cut a pretty regal figure from time to time – certainly in all matters lingual where he was a (rather self-aware) dignitary.The book is a true delight, and any Kingsley Amis fan will smile a lot while reading it – and also learn a great deal about the language that Amis loved so much. I have about 10 books that never leaves my desk – this is one of them.

Oh, he is such a curmudgeon, and this book is just a treasure. The crabbier he got, the more I loved it. A book to read one or two definitions at a time, then leave out somewhere to open up to a random page every now and then, just to be reminded of how the world is full of ignoramuses and going to hell in a handbasket.

A good dip-into book. Issues are raised one hasn't thought of (and note the preposition at the end is entirely acceptable to Sir Kingsley). Acerbic, opinionated certainly, and frequently amusing. It helps to be an Amis fan or sympathiser to guess what to expect and learn and chuckle simultaneouly

Reading through this informative and engaging update on the original "King's English" is a sheer delight. They don't make people like this any more! Intelligent but not overbearing. Witty. Brilliant. He must have been the perfect dinner guest - if you didn't refill his glass too quickly. Highly recommended.

Best devotional I have used. I highly recommend this book.

A wonderful book, full of good humour and good advice, with a slathering of curmudgeonly comment.

Excellent service and quality book

This is a little patronizing.; not anywhere complete and more of a personality profile of Mr. Amis. It tries to copy Fowler's "King's English", but doesn't succeed.

'The King's English' deserves the praise heaped upon it. It's provocative and thought-provoking, informative and laugh-out-loud funny -- its one detractor on Amazon needs a sense-of-humour transplant, and fast!What it isn't is definitive or exhaustive, but then Amis clearly didn't intend it to be. It's too slim a volume to be the latter and often too controversial to be the former. Rather, it's a selective set of musings on modern-usage issues that piqued the author's interest or ire; his take on them bursts more than a few bubbles that more conventional guides -- even those produced since Amis's death -- (let alone most English teachers) still want to keep aloft. No reader will agree with every one of the author's opinions -- that's a big part of the book's appeal -- but every reader will recognize that his motive is always clarity and unfussiness of expression. In my professional life, I frequently dip into style and usage guides, but 'The King's English' is the only one I know that warrants and rewards reading from cover to cover with no particular writing assignment in mind. Its lasting value is the way it channels the writer, without his or her even being aware of it at the time, towards a finer understanding of familiar (but usually misapplied) turns of phrase and a greater discernment in the use of the language.

Calling his book “The King’s English” implies that Amis has written a reworking the manual of the same name by the Fowlers. But he has not done so. This is not as Amis claims “a work of definition and reference”. What Amis has produced is a set of articles about topics that interest him. A few have little relevance to English usage – “Typewriter vs. word-processor” for example. The articles are arranged alphabetically although why is not clear. That decreases the book’s usefulness. Thus a list of Latin words that are used in English, is not easy to find. It appears at the end of a relatively long rambling article on the value of studying Latin, but even then not under L but under D. Amis gives a number of examples of words whose meaning is ambiguous, having a general usage that is different from the technical definition or from an older meaning. (Decimate is one; Amis tells us it meant the execution of one in ten of a legion as punishment.) But these are not collected together.What Amis has to say is nearly always sensible. Whether or not you like the book I think depends on whether you find the style and manner in which it is written, congenial or irritating. Amis admits to a “didactic or put ‘em right side” to his nature. He comes across as opinionated and somewhat cantankerous. I suspect that is in part a pose; a character he decided to adopt. If Amis’s account of his dealings with a salesman out to get him to try a word-processor is correct, Amis could be discourteous, unfair and unkind; I can imagine the young man departing muttering, “Silly old fart”.The style fits the personality; I find the style ponderous and not always immediately clear. Amis writes, “Occasionally I think that a kind of training that has for many years been more than avocational is no real training at all, is one that fits its recipients better for argufying than for argument, and am suitably chastened.” I would urge anyone thinking of buying the book to read a page first.Amis has a long section on pronunciation. The point, as Amis says elsewhere, is to be understood. Pronunciation, in my view, does not matter except for a few words like “desert”, provided it is not so outlandish as to be incomprehensible. Amis asserts that the building where the Commons sits is pronounced Wessminster. Why not “West-Minster” or something between? Dictionaries in any case give Received Pronunciation (R P) and one might as well follow R P as not. I think this section should have been left out.Amis’s advice on the pronunciation of foreign words is much more useful in part because there are not many of them so the list can cover most in common use, and in part because getting the pronunciation “wrong” can make one seem either ignorant on the one hand or pretentious on the other.A problem with The King’ English is that those who would benefit most are the least likely to read it. The same is true for other books on English usage. As Amis says, ”The most that can be offered is some guidance for those that want it”. That the book provides.

The perfect book for anyone who gets annoyed about tiny but common errors in spoken and written English. If you’ve ever been irritated by things like “it’s” instead of “its”, then this s the bedside book for you. Amis never rants judgementally, he just sighs in a resigned manner at the human condition: Always witty and always right.

For someone for whom English is not a first language this book is quite interesting. Probably also for some who has English as a first language. For whom Kingsley Amis obviously thoght it was a necessary book.

Entertaining way for non-grammarians to learn technical things about the English language which can be very illuminating. English isn’t my first language and I would highly recommend this book to people who also want to deepen their knowledge of it.