The Amis Papers
Episodes
Ep33 S2Ep11 The Green Man (1969)
17 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
One of Amis's best novels, worth reading, and worth reading unspoiled. Maurice Allington, alcoholic,and adulterer, runs a country pub near Cambridge ...
Ep32 S2Ep10 I Want It Now (1968)
15 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
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 Appley...
Ep31 S2Ep9 Colonel Sun (1968) and The James Bond Dossier (1965)
31 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
This epsiode looks at Amis's contributions to the James Bond literature - Colonel Sun, his continuation of the Fleming series, set in the Greek island...
Ep30 S2E8 The Anti-Death League (1966)
20 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
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. ...
Ep29 S2E7 The Egyptologists (1965)
12 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What is the Metropolitan Egyptological Society and why does it discourage public and media enquiries? It is impossible to answer this question without...
Ep28 S2E6 One Fat Englishman 1963
29 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Ep27 S2E5 Take A Girl Like You (1960)
17 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kingsley Amis's longest, and some say his best, novel, the tortuous relationship of innocent Jenny Bunn and lascivious Patrick Standish as they negoti...
Ep26 S2E4 I Like It Here (1958)
02 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Amis complains about going abroad and foreigners (and expats) while his main ire is aimed at the literature tradition of English writers imbuing Medit...
Ep25 That Uncertain Feeling (1956)
23 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 h...
S2Ep2 Lucky Jim (1954)
12 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 jus...
S2E1 Kingsley Amis intro and biography
29 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 politi...
Ep22 The Rub of Time and final thoughts
21 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Martin Amis's final collected journalism volume has its interesting moments, including a tempering of his love of Nabokov, doubts about Jeremy Corbyn,...
Ep21 Inside Story (2020)
03 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We reach Amis's last book, an exercise in autofiction that combines autobiography, a discussion of Philip Larkin's politics and love life, moving acco...
Ep20 The Zone of Interest (2015)
21 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 F...
Ep 19 Lionel Asbo (2012)
27 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Ep18 Pregnant Widow (2010)
29 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 spra...
Ep17 House of Meetings
04 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Amis's short Russian novel takes us through history from Stalinism to Putin's failed state, while following a lifelong love triangle between two broth...
Ep15a Heavy Water updated version
30 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
(updated file with the actual episode included)Amis's second short story collection is diverse in subject, style and antiquity - including a science...
Ep16 Yellow Dog (2003)
29 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The publication of Yellow Dog was greeted with dismay by the papers, writers and fans. "Embarrassingly bad" was the memorable description by novelist ...
Ep14 Out of Blue (film based on Night Train)
18 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Carol Morley's 2018 film adaptation of Night Train places the action in New Orleans. The podcast discusses how the book's mystery has been altered t...
Ep13 Night Train
11 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We jump across the Atlantic to a modern noir, with a disillusioned alcoholic cop investigating the death of her beautiful and successful friend. A c...
Ep12 The Information (1995)
16 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We reach the halfway point of Amis's fiction, a long meditation on the realities of the writer's life and the futility of revenge. Some poetic allus...
Ep11 Time's Arrow (1991)
06 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Amis follows a Nazi doctor from his death as a respectable suburban physician in America back through New York to Portugal, Rome, and wartime Germany....
Ep10 London Fields (1989)
15 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Content note: the novel raises issues of sexual violence, domestic violence, child abuse, child sexual exploitation and disordered eating.Looking at A...
Ep9 Einstein's Monsters (1987)
27 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This episode discusses Amis's first short story collection, loosely themed on nuclear war and its aftermath, and concludes that the stories are unsati...
Ep8 Money (1984)
30 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A detailed discussion of one of Amis's best books, exploring the strange appeal of John Self, what it is that the character Martin Amis takes from him...
Amis Papers 7 Saturn 3 (1980)
05 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A look at the science fiction Garden of Eden/ Frankenstein/ mad robot film Saturn 3 for which Amis wrote a screenplay, although nothing in the finishe...
Ep 6 Films - Rachel Papers and Dead Babies
05 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A look at some of the film versions of Amis's books as a prelude to Saturn 3: Rachel papers (1989) and Dead Babies (Mood Swingers) (2000) https://ww...
Ep5 Other People
30 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Is Other People more of a mystery than the author intended? I present the evidence that Mary is dead, is in hell, or is in a life loop with a chance o...
Amis Papers Ep4 Success
13 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This episode discussed Success, a tale of two brothers and sister trying to adapt to the adult world, by way of unreliable narration, urban landscapes...
Amis Papers Ep3 Dead Babies (1975)
26 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This episode explores Amis' second novel Dead Babies, an account of a drug- and sex-fuelled weekend at an Oxfordshire rectory which conceals a serious...
Amis Papers Ep2 Rachel
01 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This episode looks at The Rachel Papers (1973) and explores what Charles Highway's tragic flaw is, what the Rachel papers are, and why Charles admires...
Amis Papers 1 Introduction
24 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This episode provides some context: a brief biography of Amis, my experience as a fan since the 1980s seeing his reputation rise and fall, and a reade...