Martin Amis Amis's work centres on the excesses of late-capitalist Western society, whose perceived absurdity he often satirises through grotesque caricature; he has been portrayed as a master of what "The New York Times" called "the new unpleasantness". Inspired by Saul Bellow, Vladimir Nabokov, and James Joyce, as well as by his father Kingsley Amis, Amis himself has gone on to influence many successful British novelists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, including Will Self and Zadie Smith. Amis was born in Oxford, England. His father, noted English novelist Sir Kingsley Amis, was the son of a mustard manufacturer's clerk
The Letters of Kingsley Amis The Letters of Kingsley Amis The Letters of Kingsley Amis (2001) was assembled and edited by the American literary critic Zachary Leader. It is a collection of more than 800 letters from Amis to many different friends and professional acquaintances from 1941 until shortly before his death in 1995. About one quarter of the letters selected were addressed to Amis's close friend, the poet Philip Larkin. The other recipients of letters included in the book include: The publication of the book was concurrent with that of "Experience", a memoir by Kingsley Amis's son, the novelist Martin Amis. The author David