6. 'The Anti-Death League' by Kingsley Amis (1968)

After hugely enjoying Another Country, this was a return to an exercise in style. No sense of historical time, multiple characters and somewhat unexplained threads of narrative are present within the book, which is often funny and has moments of interest but is seldom fulfilling.

Perhaps the slight disappointment of the book came from the fact that it once again required a crusade in order to get a copy. And I cheated a little, seeing through the web that the Ripping Yarns bookshop in North London had a copy. It's a really charming bookshop, finding a balance between organisation but with enough of a mess for one to feel like they could find a cheap gem. Unfortunately, I had to cough up £12.50 for the book, a fair price considering it's clearly quite rare and in great shape, but anything over £10 makes me feel like I'm a book collector, which is a territory I don't really want to enter. Anyways, go to Ripping Yarns!

The mention of the Anti-Death League itself is fantastic, a league with a crusade of looking at the poor points of death, but this is something brought into the book quite late on and is used more as a basis for spying on one another rather than explored. There is also quite a touching storyline between our main protagonist Churchill and his new girlfriend, but again this appears secondary to wider ideas.

I have to confess that I struggled to grasp these and this is the first time that Burgess' own review of the book was of assistance: the book essentially attacks the concept of religion, and in this sense it is a fantastic and admirable book. Just not the most enjoyable to read...

Ranking Burgess' 99 January 2012:

1. Another Country

2. Ancient Evenings

3. After Many A Swan

4. The Alexandria Quartet

5. The Anti-Death League

6. The Aerodrome