Biography

BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS--beginning with general overviews, proceeding to news and information in chronological order:

	A biographical essay from Understanding Martin Amis.
	Kingsley Amis Dies on October 23, 1995 (from the Electronic Telegraph, 23 October 1995).
	Kingsley Amis Memorial, October 22 1996 (from The Times (London) 23 October 1996.
	A brief career biography at the Guardian and Observer online.
	Photographs of Martin Amis and extended family, 1960's-1990's.
	Martin Amis visits Ann Arbor, April 2, 1996 (by Rachel Smith).
	"London's Literary Bad Boy Comes to Town." Dean Bakopoulos of the Michigan Daily online interviews Amis during his 1996 visit to Ann Arbor.
	"Friends and Family Recall a Man Amused by Life." Emma Wilkins' story about the death of Amschel Rothschild, including remembrances by his friend Martin Amis (The Times, London, 12 July 1996).
	"She is the Smiliest, Most Playful of Babies." Valerie Grove interviews Amis for The Times of London, 7 April 1977.
	"A Meeting of Strangers." Jason Cowley talks with Martin Amis about Amis's meeting with his "lost daughter," Delilah Seele. The Times (London) 21 August 1997.
	"Amis Looks Set to Book His Passage to America" (article about Amis's stated intention to move to New York at some time in the future). Barbie Dutter, The Electronic Telegraph,13 October 1997.

	"A Jaded Amis Seeks Some Privacy in the Big Apple" (article about Amis's stated intention to move to New York at some time in the future). John Harlow, The Independent, 25 October 1997.
	Amis reports he was sexually molested as a child (Reuters, 1998).
	Amis Revisits Chicago, February 3, 1998 (by James Diedrick).
	"Mr. Brine's New Party." Peter Stothard, writing in The Times (London), re-reads "Heavy Water" and discovers that it still illuminates Britain's Labour Party (1 October 1998).
	"The Life and Loves of Greer." More than you probably want to know about the sexual adventures of Germaine Greer--including her encounters with the Amis-Barnes contingent (This is London, 25 February 1999).
	From the "Spunk Davis" web site: "Spunk Davis is an indie pop band from Washington D.C., composed of three guys from D.C. and one guy from Washington State. Spunk Davis is named after a character in the Martin Amis novel Money which you should read."
	"Father and Son Reunion." John Walsh of The Independent writes of the Kingsley-Amis relationship and braces himself for Experience and The Letters of Kingsley Amis (31 March 2000).
	"Martin Amis could follow Hopkins." James Bone of The Times (London) writes about Amis's talk of seeking American citizenship (13 May 2000). NOTE: ungrammatical lead of this article suggests that the Times editors are slipping: "Martin Amis may follow in the footsteps of Sir Anthony Hopkins and become an American citizenship." Unless, of course, "citizenship" is Brit-Speak for "citizen."
	"Some Good." Penelope Dening of the Irish Times interviews Amis about Experience (27 May 2000).
	"It's only the first hand and Stephen Fry is giving me hell..." The Guardian and Observer online, 8 October 2000 ("Victoria Coren joins the likes of Martin Amis, Patrick Marber and Anthony Holden and discovers that when it comes to celebrity poker there's a lot more than money at stake").
	"Dear Brother." Isabel Fonseca on her brother, painter Bruno Fonseca, who died in 1989 (Guardian Unlimited, 4 November 2000).
	Sally Amis Dies. From The Times (London), 9 November 2000.
	Relations with Julian Barnes (from The Times (London), 29 April 2001): "Relations between Martin Amis and Julian Barnes still apparently remain frosty, and the latter's dealings with other top-echelon authors could become chilly, too, should an interview he recently gave in the US be drawn to their attention. Asked why his novels tend to be only 200-300 pages long, Barnes replies: "Every so often a whopping new novel will come out by one of my contemporaries, and I'll think, 'Hang on, I haven't read, you know, Ford Madox Ford's First World War quartet'. So I'll say to myself, 'I know, I'll read that instead!' And then I'm very grateful to this guy for having made me read some great novel I'd never read." Now, let's see: Ishiguro's The Unconsoled was 535 pp., Seth's An Equal Music was 483 pp., Rushdie's The Ground Beneath Her Feet was 575 pp., and Mr. Barnes is no doubt grateful to all of them."
	Leonard Bardwell, Martin Amis's grandfather and Kingsley's father-in-law, is remembered at this site dedicated to "East Surrey Morris Men" (scroll down to "Leonard Bardwell").
	Information about and discussion of Martin Amis's sister Sally Amis.
	"It's a Bit Girly, But It Works." From the "what was he thinking? files, a Telegraph feature on Martin Amis's pilates regimen, complete with groan-worthy quotations (13 June 2002). NOTE: click here to read Susannah Herbert's groaning response in the 16 June 2002 Telegraph).
	"Queen of the Arts Thanks Her Cultural Ambassadors." Matt Born reports on Martin Amis's appearance (along with many others) at a Jubilee celebration at the Royal Academy of Arts hosted by Her Majesty the Queen (Telegraph, 23 May 2002).
	"Amis to Adapt Jane Austen for Hollywood Romantic Comedy." Catherine Milner reports on Amis's screenplay contract (Telegraph, 5 May 2002).
	Amis & Uruguay.Dear Brother
	Amis in Uruguay--February 2004.

CAREER RESOURCES:

	Money left off the Booker Prize shortlist (John Gross, The New York Times, January 13, 1985).
	"Amis Goes the Way of the 'Jackal'" (the controversy about Amis's agent-switch). Susannah Herbert, The Electronic Telegraph, 6 January 1995.
	How Amis writes--from The Times (London), 10 January 1998.

	An Italian source for Caduta Massi in Money?
	Professional gatecrasher Rory Knight Bruce, immortalized as Rory Plantaganet in The Information, tells his own story in The Express Micro Edition, 2 December 1999.
	"Martin, Salman and Ian's Big Adventure in Celebrity Land. by Damian Whitworth The Times (London), 20 March 2000.
	"Martin Amis: The Man Who Fell to Earth." Boyd Tonkin's perceptive, penetrating review of Experience, and the life and career it encompasses (The Independent, 13 May).
	"Missing Girls in Martin Amis's Life." Ben Fenton of the Electronic Telegraph writes about Delilah Seale and Lucy Partington, who haunt the pages of Experience.
	"Amis Writes Royals Into a Porno Plot." Richard Brooks, Arts Editor of the Times (London), on Amis's novel-in-progress (28 May).
	"Depressing entry into the world of Porn City." Terence Blacker of The Indendent on Amis's explorations of porn culture (20 March 2001).
	"Trilobites edge Amis out of running for Samuel Johnson award" (The Guardian 23 May 2001).
	"Chairs and Celebrities at a Literary Fiesta." Leah Garchik of the San Francisco Chronicle reports on the New Yorker Festival and Martin Amis's appearance (24 May 2001).
	Experience wins the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography (The Irish Times, 6 January 2002).

Three important British sources:

Until The Times published Eric Jacobs' diary of Kingsley Amis's last days (Jacobs has since published a full-length biography of Kingsley), Martin Amis wrote a series of significant reviews for the paper, and he is often written about here. His novel Night Train was reviewed by John Updike in the September 21 1997 Sunday Times (see my essay "From the Ridiculous to the Sublime: Early Reviews of Night Train"), and Heavy Water was reviewed in the September 27 1998 Sunday Times. Clicking the Times graphic above will bring you to the paper's home page; its archive is searchable, for a fee.

Amis has been writing articles and reviews for The Observer since 1971 and for The Guardian since 1997. This searchable Guardian and Observer web site, which features excerpts from Amis's memoir Experience, contains pieces by and about Amis.

The Electronic Telegraph is fully searchable back to November 1994, although the search engine can be frustrating. The first time you visit the paper's web site, you will be asked to register, but from then on you will enjoy free access to the paper and its electronic archives. Just type in "Martin Amis" and select the year and month range you are interested in and the paper's search engine will do the rest. Click on the image above to go to the Electronic Telegraph.

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Site maintained by James Diedrick, author of Understanding Martin Amis, 2nd edition (2004).
All contents � 2004.
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