Writer whose acrobatic wit defied gravity and solemnity and who epitomised literary fame in an age of glitz and hype
‘You read to have a good time. Why else would people go on doing it?’: Martin Amis – a life in quotes
The author of Money and London Fields has died at the age of 73. Here are some of the most memorable quotes from interviews over the course of his career
Martin Amis, era-defining British novelist, dies aged 73
The celebrated author of Money and London Fields, whose works defined the 80s and 90s literary scene, died of oesophageal cancer on Friday at his home in Florida
March 2023
Book of the day
Lives of the Wives by Carmela Ciuraru review – literary couples a breed apart
The author raids memoirs and letters but adds little of her own in this juicy group biography of writers’ marriages
February 2023
‘Ruthless ambition and ego’: what it’s like being married to an author
In a meticulously researched new book, the lives of five literary wives are examined and the often abusive relationships they found themselves in
September 2022
Mavis Nicholson obituary
Television interviewer, broadcaster and writer best known for Afternoon Plus and Mavis on 4
April 2021
Anthony Thwaite obituary
'A poem about a dream': Wendy Cope on Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis
March 2018
Books blog
Colonel Sun: is Kingsley Amis's Bond novel the weirdest of all?
Fifty years ago, the literary giant wrote a James Bond novel under a pseudonym. With all the shoddy spies and friendly Soviets, it is staggeringly un-Fleming-like
December 2017
Books blog
Kingsley Amis was spied on – but he’s in the best literary company
Rereading
’Tis a strange serpent – 10 of the most entertaining drinking bouts in literature
November 2017
Profumo had long-term relationship with Nazi spy before 60s sex scandal
Tory MP John Profumo met Gisela Winegard in Oxford in 1936 and kept in touch with her for 20 years, according to MI5 files
May 2017
Top 10s
Top 10 campus novels
Natural theatres for intellectual ideas and human folly, universities have provided perfect stages for novelists from Kingsley Amis to Michael Chabon
April 2017
Top 10s
Top 10 terrible houses in fiction
Places you’d be desperate to avoid in real life provide a magnetic lure in books by authors from Dickens to Du Maurier and even Richard Adams
January 2017
Desert Island Discs: 75 defining moments from 75 years of castaways
The show’s first guest was marooned three quarters of a century ago this month. Here are the moments that made Desert Island Discs a radio classic
September 2016
Elizabeth Jane Howard: in search of enduring love
How can someone who writes so perceptively about love make so many mistakes in their own life? Artemis Cooper on an author whose work has stood the test of time
Book of the day
Elizabeth Jane Howard: A Dangerous Innocence by Artemis Cooper – review
A hugely absorbing life of Elizabeth Jane Howard highlights the contrast between her wise novels and her doomed relationships
Why are there so many papal plots in fiction?
From Dan Brown to Graham Greene, the papacy has long proved fascinating to writers. Mark Lawson examines the mysteries around this powerful figure and the church he leads
May 2016
Greenslade
Charles Lyte, the journalist who blossomed as a gardening writer
Roy Greenslade
The gentleman of the Daily Mirror who found it necessary to drink a great deal of milk before his weekly lunches with Kingsley Amis
April 2016
Readers suggest the 10 best …
Readers suggest the 10 best representations of God in culture
Last week we blessed you with our choice of the 10 best representations of God in culture. Here’s your view on what we missed out
