Martin Amis remembered: Legend who was willing to examine the sordid side of his era | Ents & Arts News

Martin Amis was very a lot a legend in his personal lifetime.

Novels like Cash and London Fields seemed on the seamy aspect of London within the Cool Britannia period. He was a giant fan of snooker. He had an alter ego who ate quick meals and misbehaved in numerous methods.

He summed up that interval through which he lived so very nicely, of getting over the newborn growth, of Britain rediscovering itself as maybe not as necessary because it had been, however definitely as a rustic very pleased with its literary heritage.

And naturally one has to keep in mind that Martin Amis was additionally a substantial critic in his personal proper.

Learn extra:
British novelist Martin Amis dies aged 73

It must be stated, within the final decade or so, as he received more and more concerned in writing about twentieth century historical past, he hasn’t maybe had the identical acclaim as these of his technology like Salman Rushdie or Ian McEwan.

However they have been very a lot a gang collectively, and naturally with the late Christopher Hitchens as nicely, Martin Amis’s closest buddy.

And it is an irony certainly that he has now died of oesophageal most cancers like Christopher. They have been each extraordinarily heavy people who smoke.

Certainly, I bear in mind touring with Martin Amis within the press pack after we have been masking the tip of Tony Blair’s premiership, on one event we had to enter the chancellor’s workplace in Germany in Berlin, the place no smoking was allowed. And Martin Amis received so determined that he was seen consuming his cigarettes.

He was also referred to as man about city, together with his velvet jackets. He was very acutely aware of being brief and had an alter ego Little Keith, which was a parody of himself.

My favorite novel is his first one, The Rachel Papers, which is at all times stated to be very autobiographical, about his youth, getting girlfriends – as many girlfriends as attainable.

What I favored about it’s whereas it was brilliantly written and intensely humorous, it additionally had an excessive amount of compassion.

He was a really self-aware individual, at all times keen to criticise and look at his personal motivation, and maybe his personal lesser motives in addition to to reward himself.