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PODCAST

The Amis Papers

The Amis papers is a podcast reviewing Martin Amis"s fiction one book at a time, from the Rachel Papers to Inside Story, and Kingsley Amis"s fiction from Lucky Jim to The Biographer"s Moustache.The podcast is hosted by Martin Locock, a poet and author, who likes most of the Amis"s work.

arts books

All Episodes

42:28

Ep33 S2Ep11 The Green Man (1969)

The Amis Papers ·

2026/03/17

One of Amis's best novels, worth reading, and worth reading unspoiled. Maurice Allington, alcoholic and adulterer, runs a country pub near Cambridge abounding in ghosts and the presence of the supernatural entity the Green Man. In this discussion I highlight Amis's adoption of the M R James approach to writing about ghosts, the dubious antiquity of pub names and the 'green man' sculptural motif, and whether seeing ghosts would prove the existence of the afterlife. Amis again tries to explain the

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96:25

Ep32 S2Ep10 I Want It Now (1968)

The Amis Papers ·

2026/02/15

Amis presents a fairy tale in which a Sleeping Beauty is saved by love, dressed up as a satire of the ultra rich and 1960s talk shows. Ronnie Appleyard, ambitious and selfish, meets Simona Quick, listless heiress, and struggles to prise her away from the influence of her autocratic mother Lady Baldock, while visiting Greece and the southern United States. Ronnie finds his usually weakly-held convictions tested by the behaviour of the wealthy and overt racism and he stands up for right against his

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44:25

Ep31 S2Ep9 Colonel Sun (1968) and The James Bond...

The Amis Papers ·

2026/01/31

This episode looks at Amis's contributions to the James Bond literature - Colonel Sun, his continuation of the Fleming series, set in the Greek islands, and a critical review of Fleming's work as a whole. I discuss whether the novel works as a Bond book (yes), whether Amis fans will find much of his usual pleasures (no) (and on the way manage to get E M Forster's definition of story and plot confused, and examine the theory that Amis was choosing less personal projects at this time because of the

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40:14

Ep30 S2E8 The Anti-Death League (1966)

The Amis Papers ·

2026/01/20

A change in approach, with a sort-of thriller in the near future, following an experimental army unit preparing to use a secret and terrible weapon. But much of the story is about love, and Amis abandons irony while exploring whether the existence of God can be reconciled with the existence of suffering. ReferencesR D Laing The Divided Self (1961)John Robinson Honest to God (1963)Dylan Thomas "A Refusal to Mourn the Death, By Fire, of a Child in London"Father Ted "That would be an ecumenical

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24:13

Ep29 S2E7 The Egyptologists (1965)

The Amis Papers ·

2026/01/12

What is the Metropolitan Egyptological Society and why does it discourage public and media enquiries? It is impossible to answer this question without spoilers so I've included a warning at the point where all is revealed. I discuss the co-author Robert Conquest, how the protagonists got stuck in unfulfilling marriages, whether womanisers like women as much as they claim to, the surprising availability of would-be mistresses, and what George Orwell reads into Donald McGill's seaside

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46:52

Ep28 S2E6 One Fat Englishman 1963

The Amis Papers ·

2025/12/29

The adventures, mainly amorous, of Roger Micheldene, soaked in sin, fat, rude, and angry, in suburban America, as he tries to persuade Helene Bangs to leave her husband for him. Many readers mistake the target for the satire: it is Micheldene and the society that produced him that Amis is critiquing, although he does share some of his prejudices (especially about literature). The discussion muses on the improbable social and sexual success of Micheldene despite his lack of redeeming behaviour,

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54:53

Ep27 S2E5 Take A Girl Like You (1960)

The Amis Papers ·

2025/12/17

Kingsley Amis's longest, and some say his best, novel, recounts the tortuous relationship of innocent Jenny Bunn and lascivious Patrick Standish as they negotiate societal mores and personal boundaries in a pre-Pill world. In this episode I explore the source and meaning of the epigraph "Go, gentle maid, go lead the apes in hell", whether the book can be read as an indictment of the male gaze, what the old website Hot Or Not tells us about Pretty Privilege, what Amis means when a character says

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38:03

Ep26 S2E4 I Like It Here (1958)

The Amis Papers ·

2025/12/02

Amis complains about going abroad and foreigners (and expats) while his main ire is aimed at the literature tradition of English writers imbuing Mediterranean cultures with a deep understanding inaccessible to those without the means to travel. Amis's least favourite novel, based largely on his own experiences when the family spent 3 months in Portugal as a conidtion of Lucky Jim winning the Somerset Maugham first novel prize. His satire is aimed at a style of writing that doesn't really exist any

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40:37

Ep25 That Uncertain Feeling (1956)

The Amis Papers ·

2025/11/23

The tale of 'Unlucky John', trapped in an unsatisfying job and home life in Swansea, offered an escape route through an affair with a bored wife and her hard-partying friends. In this episode I discuss the parallels with Amis's own life, whether anxiety about mortality is a plausible excuse for infidelity, and why farce requires sympathy with the protagonist to be funny. Language note: I include a quote from the book that uses the term 'faggot' - this isn't used as a gay slur.

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72:06

S2Ep2 Lucky Jim (1954)

The Amis Papers ·

2025/11/12

A detailed look at Kingsley Amis’s first published novel, covering the role of luck, whether as an Angry Young Man he wants systematic change or just a better place for himself, and the characteristic KA internal monologue reflecting moral ambiguity and confusion as a new form of expression. Also discussed are the song from which the title derives, the long shadow of military service, whether relationships at the time included sex, a comparison of Christine with Rachel in The Rachel Papers, and

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26:48

S2E1 Kingsley Amis intro and biography

The Amis Papers ·

2025/10/29

Moving onto the work of Kingsley Amis, some recommendations on where to start (Lucky Jim and The Old Devils), a discussion of his biography and political development, and the value of his work as a social history of the 50s-70s.Books mentioned:Zachary Leader The Life of Kingsley AmisThe Letters of Kingsley Amis

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61:25

Ep22 The Rub of Time and final thoughts

The Amis Papers ·

2025/10/21

Martin Amis's final collected journalism volume has its interesting moments, including a tempering of his love of Nabokov, doubts about Jeremy Corbyn, and thoughts on Larkin and Germany, which I contrast with Barbara Pym's as described in Paule Byrne's biography The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym . In this episode I also look back on the novels as whole, including a discussion of Shifts by Christopher Meredith and how its portrayal of working class characters compares with Amis, Amis's ways of

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74:41

Ep21 Inside Story (2020)

The Amis Papers ·

2025/08/03

We reach Amis's last book, an exercise in autofiction that combines autobiography, a discussion of Philip Larkin's politics and love life, moving accounts of the deaths of Christopher Hitchens and Saul Bellow, and a fictitious years-long frustrating affair with Phoebe Phelps. If that sounds like a mess then you're not wrong, but there are some very good bits. I explore his advice to writers which seems to boil down to "don't write like me", and also reflect on his comments on his early novels, in

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49:07

Ep20 The Zone of Interest (2015)

The Amis Papers ·

2025/06/21

Amis's contribution to the Careers Fair of Auschwitz stays mainly with the guards, exploring the lives and morals of those engaged in delivering the Final Solution. I discuss why Shakespeare and Auden seem out of place, and Amis's view of the significance of 1942. Jenny Frazer The fictionalising of Auschwitz The Tobolowsky Files episode 34: a good day in Auschwitz

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62:25

Ep 19 Lionel Asbo (2012)

The Amis Papers ·

2025/05/27

Another attempt at a state-of-the-nation comic novel, but this time feeling detached, as if Amis is no longer up to date with British society. In this discussion I refer to "Who let the dogs out?" by the Baha Men, Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies (1930), whether Mean Mr Mustard makes sense as an 80s nickname, and Lionel Blair's cultural footprint. Amis is groping towards a point about nature and nurture and whether it is possible to escape the criminal underclass, but this is thin gruel.Also mentioned:

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76:45

Ep18 Pregnant Widow (2010)

The Amis Papers ·

2025/04/29

A long hot summer in Italy - it's 1970 and Keith Nearing is 20, working his way through the canon and thinking about sex with his companions. A sprawling novel about the reconfiguration of social mores in the aftermath of the sexual revolution - not for nothing does it start with Larkin's Annus Mirabilis. In this discussion I highlight Katha Politt's criticisms of the depiction of female characters, the slightly uncertain period detail, parallels to Adrian Mole, Lucky Jim and Jenny Bunn from Take

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64:14

Ep17 House of Meetings

The Amis Papers ·

2025/04/04

Amis's short Russian novel takes us through history from Stalinism to Putin's failed state, while following a lifelong love triangle between two brothers and Zoya. Content note: the book and the podcast include descriptions of sexual assault and reference self harm. I mention Adam Curtis's Russia 1985-1999: Trauma Zone (available in the UK on BBC iPlayer) and Kingsley Amis's novel Jake's Thing as a book that is enjoyable to read.I spend some time trying to tease out Amis's moral point, that a

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44:33

Ep15a Heavy Water updated version

The Amis Papers ·

2025/01/30

(updated file with the actual episode included)Amis's second short story collection is diverse in subject, style and antiquity - including a science fiction story that reveals that Earth is unimportant and doomed, a fantasy where poets make big money film deals and screenwriters starve, and a commentary on the way that society has left the old rules of status and masculinity behind, featuring Big Mal Bale who reappears in Yellow Dog. There are short funny stories too.Mentioned in this

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65:25

Ep16 Yellow Dog (2003)

The Amis Papers ·

2025/01/29

The publication of Yellow Dog was greeted with dismay by the papers, writers and fans. "Embarrassingly bad" was the memorable description by novelist Tibor Fischer. Tibor Fischer review Parts are aggressively unpleasant- the tedious brutality of old-style London gangsters, the extravagant cynicism and hypocrisy of the tabloid journalists, and the grimy business of the pornography industry, but looked at in the right light it is a comprehensive and nuanced exploration of masculinity in the late 20th

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0:16

Ep15 Heavy Water and other stories (1998)

The Amis Papers ·

2025/01/02

Amis's second short story collection is diverse in subject, style and antiquity - including a science fiction story that reveals that Earth is unimportant and doomed, a fantasy where poets make big money film deals and screenwriters starve, and a commentary on the way that society has left the old rules of status and masculinity behind, featuring Big Mal Bale who reappears in Yellow Dog. There are short funny stories too.Mentioned in this episode:Extract from Experience (2000)Another review of the

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