The Amis Papers

Ep21 Inside Story (2020)


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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 particular The Rachel Papers,  which turns out to be much less fictional than it appeared.

Also mentioned are the Philip Larkin Society's podcast Tiny In All That Air,   The Martin Chronicles podcast, and My Martin Amis podcast.

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The Amis PapersBy Martin Locock