Practical, convergent routes to variously substituted 1- and 2-naphthylamides have been developed. They exploit the ability of xanthates to undergo both intermolecular radical additions to vinyl pivalate and intramolecular radical cyclisations to aromatic rings. In the case of 1-naphthylamides, the existence of an intramolecular hydrogen bond was used to facilitate the cyclisation step.