Sir Kingsley Amis (1922-1995)
Novelist, poet, critic, and teacher, father of the writer Martin Amis, generally grouped among the "angry young men" in the 1950s, though he denied the affiliation. Amis' ascent from the obscurity of lower-middle-class London was largely self-willed. He became a man of outrageous wit and genius, and gained reputation as a "supreme clubman, boozer and blimp." A radical in his young adulthood, Amis was later know for his conservative critique of contemporary life and manners. "'You'll find that marriage is a good short cut to the truth. No, not quite that. A way of doubling back to the truth. Another thing you'll find is that the years of illusion aren't those of adolescense, as the grown-ups try to tell us; they're the ones immediately after it, say the middle twenties, the false maturity if you like, when you first get thoroughly embroiled in things and lose your head. Your age, by the way, Jim. That's when you first realize that sex is important to other people besides yourself. A discovery like that can't help knocking you off balance for a time.'" (from Lucky Jim, 1954)
Kingsley Amis was born in London as the only son of a business clerk. He was educated at the City of London School and St. John's College, Oxford. After service in the army with the Royal Corps of Signals Amis completed his university studies and worked as a lecturer in English at the University College of Swansea (1948-61) and in Cambridge (1961-63). In 1947 Amis published his first collection of poems, BRIGHT NOVEMBER. It was followed by A FRAME OF MIND (1953), POEMS: FANTASY PORTRAITS (1954) and A CASE OF SAMPLES: POEMS 1946-1956 (1956). During this time Amis was a member of the literary group The Movement, whose members included Robert Conquest, Elisabeth Jennings and Philip Larkin. As a novelist Amis made his debut with LUCKY JIM (1954), which was very successful. The comic main character also appeared in novels THAT UNCERTAIN FEELING (1956) and I LIKE IT HERE (1958), a xenophobic novel set in Portugal. After the death of Ian Fleming in 1964 Amis wrote a James Bond adventure, COLONEL SUN (1968). His study of the world famous spy appeared under the title THE JAMES BOND DOSSIER (1965). In the story Colonel Sun Liang-tan of the People's Liberation Army of China collaborates with an ex-Nazi plan to open the eastern Mediterranean for Chinese influence and continue to the whole Arab world and Africa. Also M is kidnapped.