Martin Amis: The Biography - Hardcover

Bradford, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1605983853 ISBN 13: 9781605983851

Publisher: Pegasus Books, 2012

Synopsis

Martin Amis' life could itself provide the formula for an enthralling work of fiction.

Martin Amis' life could itself provide the formula for an enthralling work of fiction. Son of one of the most popular and best-loved novelists of the post-war era, he has forged a groundbreaking manner of writing that owes nothing to the style of his father, nor indeed to anyone else. He relished and recorded the bizarre, turbulent atmosphere of Britain and America during the 1970s and 80s, arguably the transformative period of the late twentieth century.

No other contemporary writer has proved so magnetic for the popular press: he has, despite himself, achieved celebrity status. Of late, his reputation as a novelist has been matched by his outspoken, challenging writing on contemporary global politics, and he has earned the status as the Orwell of the early twenty-first century.  Moreover, this fascinating biography discloses the autobiographical thread that runs through Amis' books. Richard Bradford has talked with Amis at length, questioned him on his childhood, his private history, his opinions, and the inspiration for his fiction, and these exchanges are supplemented by interviews with a large number of his friends and fellow writers.

About this title

About the Author

Richard Bradford was educated at the University of Wales and at Oxford. He has held academic posts in Oxford, Wales, and Trinity College, Dublin. He is currently a Research Professor in English at the University of Ulster. He has published twenty books, including Lucky Him: The Life of Kingsley Amis (2001), First Boredom, Then Fear: The Life of Philip Larkin (2005) and The Life of A Long Distance Writer: The Authorised Biography of Alan Sillitoe.

Reviews

*Starred Review* Biographies of the living can feel premature and provisional. But as one of the most controversial, virtuoso, and avidly read literary writers on the planet, Martin Amis is certainly worthy of a life-in-progress investigation. And who better to conduct it than Bradford, biographer of Martin’s father, the notoriously freewheeling and womanizing Kingsley Amis, and of Kingsley’s best friend, poet Philip Larkin. Excerpts from Bradford’s extensive conversations with Martin and those who know or knew him flow like a glinting river through the landscape of the past Bradford zealously constructs, beginning with Martin’s conspicuously privileged yet alarmingly reckless bohemian childhood, failures at school, and lack of vision for his future. Bradford doesn’t clue non-British readers in on just how relentlessly the media scrutinized the Amis household, especially after Kingsley married his second wife, Elizabeth Jane Howard, joining together two photogenic literary superstars. But he does emphasize the extraordinary discipline long-floundering Martin marshaled once he decided to write. Bradford assiduously charts Martin’s rise as an audacious newspaper critic within a circle of brilliant friends that included Christopher Hitchens and Ian McEwan, chronicles the creation of his lightning-strike novels, and analyzes his much-gossiped-about personal life. Bradford’s engrossing and enlightening portrait of the man he believes is the most important British novelist of his generation will be the cornerstone for future biographies. --Donna Seaman

Edition details

• Publisher: Pegasus Books
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1605983853
• ISBN 13: 9781605983851
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336