"Amis wrote with precision of judgement, of observation, and with great linguistic ingenuity." Geoff Dyer
In this episode, Jack sits down with the award-winning author and novelist Geoff Dyer at his home to discuss the Good Book of Mart (as distinct from the Big Book of Mart), AKA The War Against Cliché.Geoff recalls his first encounter with Amis’s fiction, which he read consecutively as a young man, starting with The Rachel Papers in the late 70s and throughout the early 80s, until he was completely blown away by Money in 1984.Geoff says The War Against Cliché is an inexhaustible source of inspiration for him as a writer, not least because the essays contained within make the reader acutely aware of how much fun Amis had with his craft. Amis makes writing seem like the best job in the world, which explains why so many journalists treat The War Against Cliché as a talisman.As well as the essays that stand out most within this collection, Jack and Geoff imagine what chance Geoff would have stood against Amis on the tennis court, why Geoff was right bring a bag of Amis’s books to a dinner party for signing, what the Amisian ‘aura’ was really all about, and how the publication of Geoff’s new memoir, Homework, gives him pause to reflect on Amis’s achievements with both Experience and Inside Story.FOLLOW US ON TWITTER/ X: @mymartinamisFIND US ON YOUTUBE Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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"I hope writers today can rediscover the verve and energy of Martin Amis." Ross Barkan
Ross Barkan is a 35 year-old American journalist and novelist from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. His third novel, Glass Century, was published on 6 May 2025.On a semi-vacation to London this summer, Ross and Jack met to speak about Ross's favourite Martin Amis novel, Inside Story.This the first episode of the series to deal explicitly, and at length, with Donald Trump.Looking beyond the playful concept of 'The Maggot Probability' (first coined by Kingsley Amis to explain the degenerative effects of an ageing brain), Ross and Jack discuss Amis's graver concerns about true impact of America's septuagenarian president on its politics and political culture.As a New Yorker, Ross recognises what he calls Trump's "outer-borough mindset", an attitude of adversity towards the elites of Manhattan who famously paid Trump little serious attention before his meteoric rise to office in 2016 forced them to.That mindset, he argues, became Trump's calling card to the left behind of America, for whom Washington had come to represent the same den of iniquity and aloofness that the gleaming towers of The Big Apple had to Trump in the 70s and 80s.And yet, while Amis does not take Trump lightly, Ross says his criticisms of Trump lack the corrosive power of the pen that Amis was otherwise known for. Amis confesses to taking an arch tone on the subject in Inside Story, though says he does so only because Trump is a "sick joke".It's suggested later in the conversation that while Amis excelled at diagnosing modern pathologies in characters like John Self, he may have bottled it when it came to confronting the real thing in Trump. Does it take a true New Yorker to satirise this century's most controversial Western leader? It may help to read Ross's new novel before answering.Finally, listen to this episode to discover what Ross took as indispensable writing advice from Amis in Inside Story.FOLLOW US ON TWITTER/ X: @mymartinamisFIND US ON YOUTUBE Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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"The Zone of Interest records the greatest phraselet in the English language." Vincenzo Barney
Vincenzo Barney travelled all the way from Massachusetts to join a panel of eight speakers at the My Martin Amis LIVE show in March this year. If you haven't listened to it already, do go back and hit play.Since then, Vincenzo has had business on the continent, though he could not return home without first visiting Jack in South London to discuss the book he considers Amis's greatest achievement, The Zone of Interest.Published in 2014, The Zone of Interest is Amis's fourteenth novel. The story is set in Auschwitz, where a Nazi officer falls in love with the wife of a camp commandant. Told through three narrators: Angelus Thomsen, the officer; Paul Doll, the commandant; and Szmul Zacharias, a Jewish Sonderkommando, its "compendium of epiphanies, appalled asides, anecdotes, and radically condensed history", according to the writer Joyce Carol Oates, makes it arguably one Amis's most compelling works. Upon publication, many called The Zone of Interest Amis's best novel in 25 years.As well as diving into the widely-praised film adaptation, Vincenzo describes Amis's influence on him as a 29 year-old writer. On the subject of American literary culture more generally, he describes a "suspicion of melody" that he believes harms immersive enjoyment of fiction across the pond.Listen out in particular for the moment where Vincenzo refers to a phrase Amis uses in The Zone of Interest, which he says he will likely spend the rest of his days trying to match.FOLLOW US ON TWITTER/ X: @mymartinamisFIND US ON YOUTUBE Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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My Martin Amis LIVE - Sunday 23 March, 2025
On Sunday 23 March 2025, listeners of the podcast gathered in Central London to watch a live Amisathon, featuring 8 panellists and the show's host.The panel included former guests as well as a couple of new faces: Leo Robson, Alys Denby, Finn McRedmond, James Marriott, Zoe Strimpel, Sam Leith, Vincenzo Barney and John Niven.It was a great success. Thank you to the 90+ ticket-holders who attended, to our wonderful panel, and to the stage team at 21Soho.Relive the event or listen for the first time in this episode, ripped straight from the boards of the stage at the venue.FOLLOW US ON TWITTER/ X: @mymartinamisFIND US ON YOUTUBE Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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"I should've gone to lunch with Martin Amis, because by that point I loved him." Carol Morley
Martin Amis's 1997 novel Night Train followed a trifecta of bestsellers: Money, London Fields and The Information. Written as a dark parody of the noir genre, Night Train follows female detective Mike Hoolihan on an investigation into the suicide of a woman named Jennifer Rockwell. Her death is near total mystery to everyone who knew her, including Hoolihan. Prior to her death, Rockwell appeared to live a perfect life accentuated by her own physical beauty. Stranger still is the suggestion, based on the forensics, that Rockwell had shot herself in the head three times.Night Train was adapted to screen in 2018 by film director, screenwriter and producer Carol Morley. In this episode, Morley speaks to Jack about how the opportunity came to her, her first impressions of the novel, and how in the process of adapting it she found a deep connection with both Hoolihan and Amis. The adaptation was named Out of Blue, a though it received mixed reviews, Amis emailed Carol to say he was pleased it had been made.Carol speaks candidly about the process of collating the images around which to build the story, her research into American police investigations into homicide, and her last thoughts about the mark Amis left on her as a reader and film director.FOLLOW US ON TWITTER/ X: @mymartinamisFIND US ON YOUTUBE Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Personal stories from writers, critics and publicists about the life and legacy of late English novelist Martin Amis (1949-2023). Host and producer: Jack AldaneMusic: 'June' by Nigel MartinTwitter: @mymartinamis Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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