This page of the Martin Amis Web presents the author in his own words, commenting on contemporary politics, literature, and culture.
Amis's comments usually provoke lively debate, and interested readers would benefit from searching the databases Lexis-Nexis and EBSCO Host for the letters and responses these articles inspired.
Scholars of Amis's work will want to use this page in concert with the Events and Interviews page. In general, events that are open to the public will be archived under Events. Television or radio appearances will appear on either this or the Interviews page, whichever is most appropriate.
Jump to: 2011-present | 2000-2010 | 1980s & 1990s
Select Comments and Articles: 2011 to present
Because Amis's essays and public appearances routinely inspire additional discussion -- and follow-up interviews -- users of the Martin Amis Web should also consult the Interviews and Events pages. As a general rule, when Amis is interviewed one-on-one, then that will appear on the Interview page. When appearing as part of a group, that entry will appear here. Obviously, Amis's essays and book reviews will appear here.
Martin Amis Goes on the GOP Campaign Trail
Amis on the various contenders and personalities vying for the 2012 GOP nomination. Newsweek, 19 December 2011. LINK | PDF
Laureate of Terror: Don DeLillo's Prophetic Soul
Amis on DeLillo's collection The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories. The New Yorker, 21 November 2011. LINK | PDF
My father's English language
Review of Kingsley Amis's book The King's English. Guardian, 27 May 2011. LINK | PDF
Select Comments and Articles: 2000 to 2010
Philip Larkin's Women
Amis on the embattled love life of poet and novelist Philip Larkin. Guardian, 22 October 2010. LINK | PDF
Martin Amis: for my Money, they got it right
Amis on the BBC2 adaptation of his 1984 novel Money. Guardian, 25 May 2010. See the Filmography page of the Martin Amis Web for more in-depth coverage of the production. LINK | PDF | Filmography page
Martin Amis muses on the fourth estate
'I'm not turning into Kingsley. I'm already Kingsley.' Guardian, 13 February 2010.
Amis on literary longevity; also the piece that inspired the controversy with Anna Ford below. LINK | PDF
The Anna Ford Controversy (prompted by Amis's essay above)
Letters: Stringing along the Amis saga, Guardian, 26 February 2010. LINK | PDF
Anna Ford v. Martin Amis: the final episode, Guardian, 25 February 2010. LINK | PDF
Ford, Amis, and a dance to the music of time, Guardian, 25 February 2010. LINK | PDF
Letters: It's open season on Martin Amis, Guardian, 24 February 2010. LINK | PDF
Christopher Hitchens joins the fray, Guardian, 24 February 2010. LINK | PDF
You can judge a man by his enemies, Independent, 24 February 2010. LINK | PDF
On Ford's "womanizing father," Daily Mail, 22 February 2010. LINK | PDF
Letters: Martin Amis: A response, Guardian, 22 February 2010. LINK | PDF
Martin Amis responds ..., Guardian, 22 February 2010. LINK | PDF
Time for another Martin Amis arrow, Independent, 21 February 2010. LINK | PDF
Letters: the root of Martin Amis's anger, Guardian, 20 February 2010. LINK | PDF
Ford to Amis: stop your immature whingeing, Guardian, 20 February 2010. LINK | PDF
The 'silver tsunami' Euthanasia Controversy
"Martin Amis: ageing provocateur," Guardian, 25 January 2010. LINK | PDF
Whitbread winner condemns Amis, Guardian, 25 January 2010. LINK | PDF
Amis in new row over euthanasia booths, Guardian, 24 January 2010. LINK | PDF
Amis calls for euthanasia booths, Guardian, 24 January 2010. LINK | PDF
Amis calls for euthanasia booths, Sunday Times, 24 January 2010. LINK | PDF
The Problem with Nabokov
Amis on Vladimir Nabokov's legacy. Guardian, 14 November 2009. LINK | PDF
The End of Iran's Ayatollahs?
Amis on the murder of Neda Soltan, Guardian, 17 July 2009. LINK | PDF
See also reactions to this article by Abbas Barzegar (LINK), select readers (LINK), and
Arshin Adib-Moghaddam (LINK)
The Master's Voice
Amis reviews John Updike's My Father's Tears & Other Stories, Guardian, 4 July 2009. LINK | PDF
Tennis, My Beautiful Game
Amis on his love for tennis, Guardian, 27 June 2009. LINK | PDF
Amis on the Rioting in Iran
Two appearances on BBC One's This Week programme, 19 June 2009.
"Top Author on Iran" LINK1 | FLV1 and "Debate on Iran Film" LINK2 | FLV2
Not Poetry at its Best
Amis and Sarah Churchwell discuss the Oxford poetry scandal, 27 May 2009. LINK | FLV
From Outer Space to Inner Space
Amis on the death and legacy of J. G. Ballard, Guardian, 25 April 2009. LINK | PDF
Amis Memorializes J.G. Ballard's
Interviewed (go to 4:15) on Channel 4 News, 20 April 2009. LINK | LINK | FLV (20MB)
'He Took the Novel onto Another Plane of Intimacy'
Amis on the death and legacy of John Updike, Guardian, 28 January 2009. LINK | PDF
'Hysteria' swept through system
Amis on the global financial crisis, BBC Today, 22 December 2008. LINK | FLV
Terrorism's New Structure
Amis's essay in the Wall Street Journal, 16 August 2008. LINK | PDF
On BBC One's This Week Program
Discussing contemporary politics with Andrew Neil, Diane Abbott, and Michael Portillo. March 6, 2008. LINK | WMV (16MB)
No, I am not a racist
Amis responds to Ronan Bennett's accusations. The Guardian, 1 December 2007. See also Bennett's original article (19 Nov) and responses from Christopher Hitchens and Ian McEwan. AMIS | PDF | BENNETT | HITCHENS | MCEWAN
9/11 and the Cult of Death
Reflecting on 9/11, 7/7, and radical Islam's "abnormal interest ... in violent death"
The Times, 11 September 2007. Replies by Michael White and Alex Stein.
Amis, Amis, and Bond
Discussing the James Bond novels and Kingsley Amis's contributions. BBC Radio 4,
17 July 2007. LINK1 | LINK2 | RAM
The Long Kiss Goodbye
On Tony Blair's final days as prime minister. The Guardian, 2 June 2007. LINK | PDF
See also the Guardian's excellent multimedia coverage of this story, which includes voice-over commentary by Amis (Macromedia 8 required) LINK
The Terrorist Stays in the Picture
On Osama bin Laden. Time magazine, 14 May 2007. WORD
Martin Amis reviews The Islamist
The Times, 5 May 2007. Review of Ed Hussain, The Islamist: Why I Joined Radical Islam in Britain, What I Saw Inside and Why I Left LINK | PDF
On BBC's Question Time from London Program
Discussing contemporary politics, 7 December 2006. LINK | WMV | POD
On BBC1's This Week Program
Speaking about terrorism and Iraq, 26 October 2006. LINK | FLV
Deranging Consequences of 9/11
The Times, 21 October 2006. Review of Bob Woodward, State of Denial. LINK | PDF
Amis on Las Vegas, Islam, and Poker
The Australian Magazine, 21 October 2006. WORD
The Age of Horrorism
Amis's controversial, 12,000 word essay on Islam and Islamism, marking the five year anniversary of the 9/11 bombings. The Observer, 10 September 2006. See the rejoinder by Indian writer Pankaj Mishra (Observer, 17 September) and, far less seriously of course, "The Last Days of Martin Amis, by Muhammad Atta" in the satirical magazine Private Eye (issue 1167). AMIS | PDF1 | PDF2 | PDF3 | MISHRA | PDF | LINK2 | PDF
The Real Conspiracy Behind 9/11
The Times, 2 September 2006. Review of Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. LINK | PDF
All That Survives Is Love
The Times, 1 June 2006. Amis reviews the film United 93. LINK | WORD
Authors on the Front Line: Martin Amis
Amis on street violence in Columbia, Sunday Times Magazine, 6 February 2005 WORD
In Search of Dieguito
On soccer star Diego Armando Maradona. Guardian, 1 October 2004 LINK | PDF
Amis Introduces Yellow Dog for Meet the Author LINK | FLV
The Slow Birthing of Yellow Dog
Miscellaneous comments from Amis about the composition of Yellow Dog. WORD | PDF
The World: an explanation
Daily Telegraph, 8 March 2003. "Martin Amis" interprets the post-9/11 world. A parody; posted here only because database searches return this listing, mistakenly, as legitimate. WORD
The Palace of the End
The Guardian, 4 March 2003. The Guardian has removed this link, but Jackson Browne (the singer) posted it on his website, although the text cannot be copied. Other links do not have this problem. LINK1 | LINK2 | WORD | PDF | LINK3 | PDF
Window on a Changed World
Amis's one-year retrospective on the 9/11 terrorist bombings in the U.S. Daily Telegraph, 11 September 2002. EXCERPT | PDF | FULL
The Voice of the Lonely Crowd
"After September 11, writing fiction seemed a pointlessly indulgent exercise. But, Martin Amis argues, against the deadly excesses of politics and religion, the novel is a supremely rational undertaking" The Guardian, 1 June 2002. LINK | PDF
See also John Pilger's attack on this piece in the New Statesman, 17 June 2002. LINK
Age Will Win
Amis reviews Richard Eyre's film about Iris Murdoch, John Bayley, Alzheimer's disease, and "the tragedy of time" Guardian Unlimited, 21 December 2001. LINK | PDF
Fear and Loathing
Amis on the September 11 terrorist bombings in the U.S. "Their aim was to torture tens of thousands, and to terrify hundreds of millions. In this, they have succeeded." The Guardian, 18 September 2001. LINK | PDF
A Rough Trade
Amis on the San Fernando Valley porn industry for the 17 March 2001 Guardian (this essay originally appeared as "Sex in America" in Talk magazine, February 2001: 98-103, 133-35. LINK | PDF1 | PDF2
Letter to Britney Spears
On the occasion of her memoir. From "The Britney Papers," a series of letters from Norman Mailer, J.D. Salinger, George Plimpton, Camille Paglia and Martin Amis. From the Modern Humorist, 20 June 2000. LINK | PDF
Select Comments & Articles: 1980s and 1990s
The Shock of the Nou
Amis reports on Manchester United's European Cup victory. The Observer, 30 May 1999. LINK | PDF
High for a Time
Amis reviews Tom Wolfe's A Man In Full for The Guardian, 7 November 1998. LINK | PDF
The Mirror of Ourselves
Amis on Princess Diana in Time Magazine, September 15, 1997. "She takes her place among the broken glass and crushed metal, in the iconography of the crash, alongside James Dean, Jayne Mansfield and Princess Grace". EXCERPT | PDF | FULL
Amis on J.G. Ballard
Amis's review-essay on Ballard's novel Crash and David Cronenberg's film adaptation Independent on Sunday, 10 November 1996: 8-9. WORD | PDF
Amis on Hillary Clinton.
Amis reviews It Takes a Village, by Hillary Clinton. The Sunday Times, 17 March 1996. WORD | PDF
Demons Under the Rainbow
Amis reviews a new biography on Malcolm Lowry, The Independent, 12 December 1993.
Amis on Don DeLillo.
From Amis's review of Mao II, by Don DeLillo, 1991. WORD | PDF
The World According to Spielberg
From "The Observer Century in Films," The Guardian & Observer online, 21 November 1982. LINK | PDF