Reporting For Duty
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Categories
In this Discussion
The Sir Kingsley Amis Discussion Thread (Non-Bond Works Only)
Dragonpol
https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
I see that as yet we (regrettably) have no discussion thread for Sir Kingsley Amis and his non-Bond works so I thought it was high time that I created one as I am a big fan of Amis and I am currently working through his fiction and non-fiction, his letters and Memoirs to write several articles on him and his works for my blog.
This is the space for Amis fans of all hues to post reviews, recommendations or articles of interest on the legendary post-war British author Sir Kingsley Amis (1922-1995).
I'll start the ball rolling with this very interesting B/W archive interview from 1958 of Amis by Simon Raven (who also has several Bond connections too, mind):
If we are to reference Bond, perhaps it could be how works like The Anti-Death League and The Egyptologists have links to his Bond novel Colonel Sun? Or did Maps of Hell have links to The James Bond Dossier for instance? I think that that would serve to make this thread uniquely interesting. I'm open to all areas of debate, though. :)
This is the space for Amis fans of all hues to post reviews, recommendations or articles of interest on the legendary post-war British author Sir Kingsley Amis (1922-1995).
I'll start the ball rolling with this very interesting B/W archive interview from 1958 of Amis by Simon Raven (who also has several Bond connections too, mind):
If we are to reference Bond, perhaps it could be how works like The Anti-Death League and The Egyptologists have links to his Bond novel Colonel Sun? Or did Maps of Hell have links to The James Bond Dossier for instance? I think that that would serve to make this thread uniquely interesting. I'm open to all areas of debate, though. :)
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
I will post more of his interviews soon.
I've not actually, though I really need to get that and read it. I'm very interested in Larkin too and have a few books on him too, one of them by my old English lecturer Professor Bradford.
Thank you - I'm a big Amis fan. I'm happy to say his son Martin is a reader of my blog (he left a comment on an article there on his father).
A lot of Bond connections--Raven reviewed several of the Bond novels, starting with Casino Royale (the "supersonic John Buchan" quote is his). He defended Fleming during the flap over Dr.No and later reviewed Snelling, Amis, and Pearson's Bond books at length. I've been planning to post those reviews for a while and will eventually do so. Raven's contributions to OHMSS are already well known--had he added nothing but that quote from "Hassan," he would still have played a vital part in the film. Apparently Raven drew on his OHMSS experiences for his novel Come Like Shadows (1972), though I can't detect many parallels--the tough, shrewd film director character and the vulgar American producer might be based on Hunt and Saltzman/Broccoli. Raven also mentions Fleming in his novel Friends in Low Places, and his spy novel Brother Cain is an interesting and downbeat (not to mention bisexual) inversion of the genre.
As for Amis, I've read Everyday Drinking (a collection of his liquor columns), The Green Man, The Alteration, and The Anti-Death League. I tackled the latter so long ago that I can't remember any Bond linkages. The former two books are genre exercises and are highly recommended. There's also a good TV film of The Green Man that's worth seeking out. The Alteration is a brilliantly conceived alternative world novel, a very convincing one, though the ending is a slight letdown.
Do share!
I like Martin Amis and have his excellent autobiography, a good companion to Christopher Hitchen's Hitch-22 if you want a nice double act for your shelf.
Certainly! It can be found as the first comment on this blog paper:
http://thebondologistblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/kingsley-amis-draxs-gambit-and-reform.html
Here is what he wrote; I later amended the article. Martin Amis commented on the day the paper went up - 29 January 2013:
Anonymous 1 year ago
Some interesting observations buried in the verbiage, but I have never been editor of The New Statesman - Martin Amis
Anyone read Kinger's 'Memoirs'?
Yes, I felt honoured for sure.
I've read parts of it, yes. Well worth a read, though sadly no outright Bond mentions although Ian Fleming does get a namecheck at least.
Now, I'd noted this one down myself. I'd love to read your paper when you get it completed, @Revelator! Keep up the good work, friend!
No Bond references in it, but it deals with Army Life, Writing Career, University Life as a Lecturer and has chapters on various personalities such as Margret Thatcher, Roald Dahl and Anthony Powell. I got the Memoirs and his Collected Letters in charity shop back in 2008. I later got the Zachary Leader biography and the Eric Jacobs one, as well as Mrtin Amis' Experience. Also his Collected Non-Fiction 1954-1990. All recommended for the Amis fan.
Edit: after rereading the description of the Dossier files, I realize that the four letters "to and from Ian Fleming" might actually have been between Cape and Fleming, rather than Amis and Fleming. But it still would be fascinating to know Fleming's reaction to Amis's book. Too bad there isn't a collection of Fleming's letters...
Great stuff! I look forward to your review very much. :)
I'm currently reading through Amis' Memoirs (1991) for an upcoming blog article.
I also have a few articles to get completed on Amis and Bond for my blog as 28 March 2018 marks the 50th Anniversary of the publication of Amis' Colonel Sun in 1968. That was the start of the official James Bond continuation project that has run intermittently ever since and to my mind it is an anniversary well worth celebrating with a special series of articles!
Ah, but there are some interesting connections in his non-Bond works too. I will admit that I am mainly interested in Amis through the Bond angle, of course, but there's a lot more to the Amis story too.
The TV version, with Albert Finney, was also very well done, though of course the book is scarier in one's head. Amis's alternative-world novel The Alteration is also a great read and presents an eerily realistic portrait of a backwards world where the Reformation never happened.
A mummy is stolen from a small town museum along with some Roman coins and a soaking wet man collapses in fourteen year old Peter Furneaux's living room bleeding from the head. What was a suspected student prank is followed by murder...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P22yqww2qM
Riverside Villas is Amis's take on the Golden Age detective/whodunit story, set in 1936.
Let us know this is more my cup of tea.
Will do, @SaintMark! I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to be reading the Book Club Association edition which has the same lovely evocative dustjacket as the Jonathan Cape first edition.