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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...
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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.
show less
The podcast is hosted by Martin Locock, a poet and author, who likes most of the Amis's work.
Episodes & Posts
Episodes
Posts
7 SEP 2026 · Kingsley Amis is back on campus: Dr Jake Richardson is discovering a strange world in which his loss of sex drive leads him to re-evaluate his relationships with women while he undergoes therapy and treatment. Hailed at the time as funny if divisive, but sounding worse now, when Amis's attempts to undermine Jake's views fall flat. I also discuss why Leonardo DiCaprio would disagree with Amis's law of age and attraction, how far university has changed since Lucky Jim, and the strange recycling of the sleeping pills plot.
2 AUG 2026 · A quick update while I'm preparing the episode covering Jake's Thing.
News about the Cambridge Companion to Martin Amis, just published and a My Martin Amis event in London.
And then a recording of me reading some of my poetry at the Llandeilo Comedy Weekender, July 2026.
3 JUN 2026 · Amis's foray into speculative fiction examines an alternative history in which England remains Catholic, the Papacy retains its hegemony, and young Hubert Anvil's soprano voice is so exceptional that his elders and betters propose to preserve it by castration. His best novel of the 70s depicting life under a religious totalitarian government with at the core an adventure story.
Things mentioned:
Philip K Dick The Man in the High Castle (1962)
Len Deighton SS GB (1978)
Robert Harrris Fatherland (1992)
John Salisbury - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc1pu98OgQKL0td_qfP-IToFiVWwTT1F8
https://youtu.be/cWv8hJVhAUM?si=L1j1mFHrvHx9OlG_
https://youtu.be/YqI0aquIOhM?si=9NfSX7VydS7y6YCC
7 MAY 2026 · Five old people live in Tuppenny Halfpenny Cottage and spend their time dealing with health problems, the prospect of death, and their irritating housemates. A black comedy which leaves few characters from its aim (apart from what is probably the only positive depiction of an advertsising executive in literature).
Language note: includes a homophobic slur and racist attitudes
https://youtu.be/hstDRIgemOs?si=TJ8oKDlnqe12XjJJ
Explicit
30 APR 2026 · In 1936, among the residents of the modest houses of Riverside Villas is 14 year old Peter Furneaux, obsessed by model aircraft, jazz and the mysterious world of sex. Amis builds a murder mystery around an evocation of very particular time, place and social context, taking the opportunity to parody the tropes of the crime novel while drawing heavily on autobiography and taking consequences seriously.
Content note: the podcast discusses child sexual abuse and includes ethnic slurs
Things mentioned:
George Orwell The Decline of the English murder (1946)
R C Sherriff The Fortnight in September (1931)
There is a radio dramatisation of the story https://youtu.be/FS2jO7vCZeE?si=ADA3UGJmwKy8YmMM
Explicit
14 APR 2026 · A morality tale set in late 60s London, often praised as a satire of young people these days and their older cheerleaders, but in fact an exploration of Henri de Montherlant's philosophy of the self-sufficient man who only engages with romance as a passing diversion.
Note on sound quality: heavy rain at times.
Note on content: includes a discussion of racial slurs
Links
Henri de Montherlant https://archive.org/details/girlstetralogyof0000mont/
https://www.enotes.com/topics/henri-de-montherlant/criticism/montherlant-henri-de-vol-19/simone-de-beauvoir
https://stephenrobertcarruthers.substack.com/p/henry-de-montherlants-les-jeunes
https://youtu.be/gnA1IMnLZr4?si=XUxI52XtsO3n-nOj
17 MAR 2026 · 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 appeal of womanising, while noting that some womanisers don't seem to like women at all.
Amis writes perceptively about the impacts of alcoholism and infidelity, leading me to define the Kingsley syndrome: “the ability of a novelist to understand and depict the negative consequences of a character’s behaviour without leading to the novelist altering his own behaviour”
The presence of a threesome in the plotline is perhaps surprising when two years earlier David Crobsy thought he was being young and radical in proposing one in 'Triad', confirming that every younger generation thinks they invented sex.
I also look at the TV adaptation by Maclolm Bradbury (author of The History Man) which is perhaps less worthy of your time. https://youtu.be/bdK93bYG6gE?si=42u3PhQAxrEhZ_eN https://youtu.be/EU1T4LwDpyk?si=WPEmdpRZIM3ZKtrP https://youtu.be/9-qbO5gM0ek?si=X3E8vi0EWBPE8lpN
Explicit
15 FEB 2026 · 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 better interests.
Content note: discussion of sexual assault
As a bonus (of sorts) this episode includes a reading of my long short story, Change and Decay, which examines the murky ethics underlying an aristrocatic family.
Explicit
31 JAN 2026 · 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 turmoil of his private life). The James Bond Dossier is more interesting, addressing head-on the criticisms levelled at Fleming's work as appealing to male reader's wish fulfilment and full of pornography and sadism, and Amis makes a good case that these are largely unfounded; he is on weaker ground arguing that what the critics really disliked was that Bond was presented as patriotic, uncomplicatedly pro-West and brave. Amis also slyly uses his defence of genre writing to implicitly argue that popular literature deserved more respect than polite literature.
Sources mentioned
https://youtu.be/kFH0tD439Oc?si=96HRN5nllP_me3hd
https://youtu.be/l90dVdnKdZk?si=TPK_X_-AIBV1VXq2
20 JAN 2026 · 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.
References
R D Laing The Divided Self (1961)
John Robinson Honest to God (1963)
https://youtu.be/opLE_8nbgIE?si=kNmmioQF_DiRAHMH
Father Ted https://youtube.com/shorts/h2rp1fyf2TM?si=EggopmNjJTcYNC03
http://www.nuclear-weapons.info/vw.htm#Wee%20Gwen
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...
show more
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.
show less
The podcast is hosted by Martin Locock, a poet and author, who likes most of the Amis's work.
Information
| Author | Martin Locock |
| Organization | Martin Locock |
| Categories | Books |
| Website | - |
| - |
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