The synthesis of the bis(dimethylsilyl)amide complexes [MN(SiHMe 2 ) 2 ] (M = Li (1), Na (2), K (3)) was accomplished in high yield (> 95%) by various standard procedures. Additionally, a novel trans-silylamination reaction has been applied to synthesize the sodium derivative 2. The alkali metal amide complexes which are readily soluble in aliphatic hydrocarbons were characterised by means of IR and 1 H, 1 3 C and 2 9 Si NMR spectroscopy. A single crystal X-ray diffraction study of the sodium derivative 2 revealed the formation of an infinite, all-planar ladder structure. Compound 2 crystallizes from n-hexane at -35°C in the orthorhombic space group Pnma with a = 5.4439(2) 9, b = 15.7268(9) 9, c = 10.9751(6) 9, V = 939.63(8) 9 3 and Z = 4. Least squares refinement of the model based on 873 reflections converged to a final ωR 2 = 0.1124.