Industry mourns loss of ‘fearless’ novelist Martin Amis 

Leading industry figures have paid tribute to British author Martin Amis, who died on 19th May aged 73 at his home in Florida of oesophageal cancer.

Amis published his first novel, The Rachel Papers, in 1973 with Jonathan Cape, aged 24. Other acclaimed works included the 1984 novel Money, Time’s Arrow (1991) and The Zone of Interest (2014).

His UK editor Michal Shavit said: “It’s hard to imagine a world without Martin Amis in it. He was the king – a stylist extraordinaire, super cool, a brilliantly witty, erudite and fearless writer, and a truly wonderful man. He has been so important and formative for so many readers and writers over the past half-century. Every time he published a new book it was an event. He will be remembered as one of the greatest writers of his time, and his books will stand the test of time alongside some of his favourite writers: Saul Bellow, John Updike and Vladimir Nabokov.”

His former UK editor Dan Franklin added: “For so many people of my generation, Martin Amis was the one: the coolest, funniest, most quotable, most beautiful writer in the British literary firmament. When I first moved to Cape in 1993 it still seemed, 20 years on from The Rachel Papers, that every young writer wanted to be on the list because Martin was on it.

“The fact that he was so overlooked for literary prizes only added to his allure. He was fearless in his opinions (although curiously naïve about the furore those opinions would provoke in the British press), he wrote inimitable prose and some of the funniest novels you will ever read. The news that he has died is unbearably sad.”

Born 25th August 1949 in Oxford, Amis was the son of English novelist Kingsley Amis and Hilary Ann Bardwell. After attending a host of different schools in his youth, Amis attended Exeter College, at Oxford University, where he graduated with a first in English.

Before he published his first novel, he worked at the Times Literary Supplement, and at 27 years old joined the New Statesman as their literary editor. In 2007, he was appointed as a professor of creative writing at the University of Manchester, before stepping down in 2011.

Amis was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his memoir Experience, and was listed for the Booker Prize twice, including a shortlisting for Time’s Arrow. His works were noted for their dark, wry satire and inventiveness.

Amis’ most recent book was Inside Story (2020), which was shortlisted for the National Book Critics’ Circle award for fiction. In a statement, its publisher, Vintage Books, said: “It has been a profound privilege and pleasure to be his publisher; first as Jonathan Cape in 1973, with his explosive debut, The Rachel Papers; then as part of Penguin Random House and Vintage, up to and including his most recent book, 2020’s Inside Story.

“He was always unfailingly warm, kind and generous to those fortunate enough to work closely with him. His death is an enormous loss to all of us at Penguin Random House and to the UK’s cultural landscape.”

Andrew Wylie, Amis’ agent, told the Guardian that “the level of attention Martin brought to each sentence was unique and special” and that “he played on a field that few writers visited". The novelist Anne Enright said: “Amis was a princeling writer, fully serious, always careless, sometimes hurtful. Libidinous, propulsive, hilarious: I loved the feeling of possibility his discordant syntax released in the reader. There was something about his confidence that was contagious and liberating.”

Salman Rushdie said Amis had a unique literary voice and that “it was unwise to try to imitate him”, adding in a piece for the New Yorker: “He used to say that what he wanted to do was leave behind a shelf of books – to be able to say: ‘From here to here, it’s me.’ His voice is silent now. His friends will miss him terribly. But we have the shelf.”

Booksellers have also paid tribute, with Matt Hennessey, Waterstones fiction buyer, saying: "We are extremely sad to hear the news of Martin Amis’ death. A brilliant, inimitable writer. Each new book was an event: he made writing seem glamorous and exciting. The British literary world will be a less interesting place without him, but booksellers will continue to champion his works for generations to come.” Shakespeare and Co wrote: “Martin Amis was one of the guests at our festival in 2010. He was witty, caustic, insightful, generous and dazzling, much like his writing. Our condolences to his family and friends.”

Amis sold 648,000 books for £5.5m in the BookScan era, post 1998, with the 1999 edition of London Fields his bestseller, on 63,211 copies. However his sales from the 1980s would be much higher.  

In its obituary, the Guardian said Amis "delighted, provoked, inspired and outraged readers of his fiction, reportage and memoirs across a literary career that set off like a rocket and went on to dazzle, streak and burn for almost 50 years", adding that “his scintillating verbal artistry, satirical audacity and sheer imaginative verve at every level from word-choice to plot-shape announced a blazing, once-in-a-generation talent".

The Times described him as “the most distinctive, some would say, arrogant, novelistic voice to come out of England in the 1980s”, while The Telegraph said Amis was a “prodigiously gifted novelist acclaimed for capturing the zeitgeist of the 1980s and 1990s". The Financial Times concluded: "It would be hard to overstate Amis’ importance in the literary landscape of the English-speaking world over the past 50 years."

Amis is survived by his wife, Isabel Fonseca, and his children Louis, Jacob, Fernanda, Clio and Delilah.