Kingsley Amiss witty campus novel, Lucky Jim is a comedy that skewers the hypocrisies and vanities of 1950s academic life. This Penguin Modern Classics edition contains an introduction by David Lodge. n n Jim Dixon has accidentally fallen into a job at one of Britains new red brick universities. A moderately successful future in the History Department beckons - as long as Jim can stave off the unwelcome advances of fellow lecturer Margaret, survive a madrigal-singing weekend at Professor Welchs, deliver a lecture on Merrie England and resist Christine, the hopelessly desirable girlfriend of Welchs awful son Bertrand. Inspired by Amiss friend, the poet Philip Larkin, Jim Dixon is a timeless comic character, adrift in a hopelessly gauche and pretentious world. n n Kingsley Amis (1922-1995), born in London, wrote poetry, criticism, and short stories, but is best remembered as the novelist whose works offered a comic deconstruction of post-war Britain. Amis explored his disillusionment with British society in novels such as Lucky Jim (1954) and That Uncertain Feeling (1955); his other works include The Green Man (1970) Stanley and the Women (1984), and The Old Devils (1986) which won the Booker Prize. n n If you enjoyed Lucky Jim, you might like Amiss The Kings English, also available in Penguin Modern Classics. n n A flawless comic novel ... I loved it then, as I do now. It has always made me laugh out loud n Helen Dunmore, The Times n n A brilliantly and preposterously funny book n Guardian n