British writer Martin Amis European Pressphoto Agency

Pity poor Martin Amis, whose failings as a godfather are not hissed at him during the course of a dinner party but broadcast in the pages of a newspaper. Former news anchor Anna Ford, infuriated by Mr. Amis's complaints (also in the pages of a newspaper) about his treatment by the press, decided to set the record straight. As it happens, Ms. Ford's daughter Claire is Mr. Amis's allegedly neglected goddaughter: Her father, Anna's late husband, magazine editor and cartoonist Mark Boxer, had been friends with Mr. Amis before Mr. Boxer's death in 1988. In her open letter to Mr. Amis, Ms. Ford wrote: "You paid scant attention to Claire (didn't even cough up the statutory five bob expected from godfathers!) and she hasn't heard from you since." We also learned that Mr. Amis (and his pal Christopher Hitchens) smoked over the hospital bed of Mr. Boxer when he was dying. While these are failings, to be sure, why should they be public fodder rather than private recrimination?

Anna Ford Getty Images

Because that's how it always works when Mr. Amis—as so often seems to be the case—is at the heart of a feud. Why does he find himself so often the target of this kind of sniping? It's hard to say, really; but the son of Kingsley Amis was always going to cause a stir. And Mr. Amis himself can't seem to stop himself adding fuel to the fire. When the Guardian turned Ms. Ford's letter into an item on its news pages (who wouldn't?), the piece contained the words: "Amis declined to comment on Ford's letter, saying—with some restraint—that he would prefer to speak to her personally." Mr. Amis must have a rather different idea to the rest of us as to what "personally" means; for two days later came another letter, from Mr. Amis to Ms. Ford, not slipped under her door or pinged at her inbox but, yes, appearing in the pages of the Guardian.

It's quite a long letter and goes into really quite tedious detail about what sort of godfather he is (lousy, he admits) and what actually transpired during that hospital visit to Mr. Boxer.

Christopher Hitchens Press/Newscom

Still awake, are you? You might also want to read Christopher Hitchens's letter on the subject—Mr. Hitchens is a friend of Mr. Amis's, was a pal of Mr. Boxer's, and he was there in the hospital too, puffing away, as is his wont. Since Anna, Martin and Christopher know you can't get enough of this excitement, Anna had another letter published in the Guardian (Facebook wall for the literati, apparently), addressed to both the chaps, bringing in a bit more detail about who smoked what cigarette, for how long, and where and when. Her parting words: "I certainly don't bear a grudge against either of you, who are what you are."

We all are what we are; some of us just keep it out of the papers, that's all. The fascination in Britain with Mr. Amis's life and opinions is, however, insatiable and unceasing. It wasn't just the Guardian that covered this story, I promise you: You'll find pieces on this gripping saga in every other national organ—the Independent, the Daily Mail, the Telegraph, the Sunday Times. But then Martin Amis has a long history of finding himself at the center of controversy. There was his falling out with former friend Julian Barnes (he dropped Mr. Barnes's wife, the late Pat Kavanagh, as an agent, in favor of Andrew Wylie in 1994). Mr. Wylie went on to sell Mr. Amis's novel "The Information" for a cool half a million pounds. A.S. Byatt called the sale "male turkey-cocking"—though she later said she was sorry.

British author Julian Barnes Newscom

In 2006, following Mr. Amis's remarking in an interview with the Times, that in the wake of 9/11 "the Muslim community will have to suffer until it gets its house in order," Terry Eagleton responded in the Guardian by remarking that "...there is something rather stomach-churning at the sight of those such as Amis and his political allies, champions of a civilization that for centuries has wreaked untold carnage throughout the world, shrieking for illegal measures when they find themselves for the first time on the sticky end of the same treatment." It's fair to say that the taint of Islamophobia has haunted him ever since; in 2008 he told yet another newspaper, "I'm a passionate multiracialist and a very poor multiculturalist."

Political argument or literary feud? With Mr. Amis it's hard to untangle the two. Whether the subject is God or goddaughters, we just can't get enough of him, it would seem. By the way—have I mentioned that he's got a novel out?

Erica Wagner is literary editor of the Times in London. Her novel, "Seizure," is published by W.W. Norton.