My Martin Amis
My Martin Amis is a podcast of personal recollections about the life and legacy of the late English novelist Martin Amis, who died in 2023. Writers, critics and publicists share their own stories and memories of knowing him and reading his work. The show is hosted and produced by Jack Aldane, with music by Nigel Martin. It offers an affectionate, anecdotal portrait of Amis as both a writer and a person.
Episodes
"Are there any ugly women that Amis affords full humanity? I'm not convinced." Leon Craig
Leon Craig's debut novel The Decadence was published in September of 2025, with the paperback due to be published in August 2026.She speaks to Jack Aldane about Amis's 2010 novel The Pregnant Widow, a complex synthesis of comedy of manners, roman à clef, and historical revision that examines the language and practices of the sexual revolution through a set of characters ostensibly holidaying for
"When you don't win The Booker, you know it's alright, because Amis didn't either." Kevin Power
Many a male Amis reader owes his smoking habit to the author.The novelist Kevin Power is one who thought he'd quit for good, until he spotted Amis and Isabel Fonseca walking on the grounds of Ireland's prestigious Borris House Festival of Writing and Ideas.Peeling off from his friends, Power sidled up and asked Amis for a lighter. Amis obliged and handed Power a thumb-sized Bic, shortly after whic
"I wish Amis's Substack was landing in my inbox today." George Monaghan and Nicholas Harris
For this episode of My Martin Amis, we're plugging into the London recording studio of the New Statesman magazine.From the intro: "Founded by economists and social reformers Sidney and Beatrice Webb and the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw in 1913, the New Statesman has enjoyed a long history of finding and fostering journalistic and literary talent. In the early Seventies, the paper went thro
"Amis's talent was to put words to things in ways both unobvious and inevitable." David Szalay
David Szalay won the Booker Prize for his sixth novel Flesh in 2025. In this tense, spare, frictionless work of fiction, he drip feeds us the story of the laconic male protagonist Istvan, who spends his youth in a juvenile facility in Hungary before eventually finding his way into a fractured family situated among the upper echelons of London's wealthiest elites, where his fortunes soon unravel.Fl
"Every page of London Fields has a sense of an author in absolute command." Rob Doyle
In the basement room of an East London flat one rainy January morning, Jack sat down with the Irish writer Rob Doyle to discuss the publication of his third novel, Cameo, and delve into his long and complex love for the work of Martin Amis.Rob chose to talk about London Fields, the novel we first encounter on this series through the Financial Times columnist, Janan Ganesh. But whereas Ganesh grew
"I went to pick him up at Manchester Piccadilly Station and...he was doing Pilates." John McAuliffe and Ian McGuire
This episode takes Jack Aldane to Manchester, where he meets two men who knew Martin Amis in a rather unique setting. Ian McGuire and John McAuliffe, both esteemed authors, are the co-founders of The Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester.Not long after establishing this bastion of new literary talent in 2007, the pair began the search for ambassadors to endorse its mission and tea
"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
"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 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,
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,
"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 t
"He opened the door, holding three darts. Amis was quite mischievous." Anthony Quinn
English novelist Anthony Quinn has met and interviewed Martin Amis on several occasions. Their first encounter followed the publication of London Fields in 1989, the second during the publicity storm that came with Amis's 1995 novel The Information.In this episode, he and Jack discuss Amis's last novel, Inside Story, published in 2020. Although Anthony struggled with it in his first reading, he la
"Martin Amis makes you alive to the possibilities of prose." David Patrikarakos
British author, journalist and war correspondent David Patrikarakos was due to leave the UK for Athens in the summer of 2024. Before he left, he discovered My Martin Amis, and quickly got in touch to ask to tell his story about how he became, as he put it, "mildly obsessed" with the late novelist.On this episode, David and Jack sit down together early one morning to revisit The Rachel Papers, Amis
"Amis's prose is sparkling, relatable, aspirational, and authentic." Simon Parkin
On this episode, British journalist, author and video game critic for The Observer Simon Parkin reaches into the more obscure corners of Amis's bibliography to dissect a dazzling collection of arcade game reviews published circa 1982. Entitled Invasion of the Space Invaders, this glossy publication starts with Amis's recollection of the moment these machines stole his heart, after a Space Invaders
"Amis is one of the best writers of dialogue." John Niven
John Niven is a Scottish author and screenwriter whose books include Kill Your Friends, The Amateurs, The Second Coming. The F*ck-it List, and O Brother.John discusses his favourite of Amis's novel, The Information, published in 1995. The Information follows two star-crossed writers, Gwyn Barry and Richard Tull. The pair have been friends since university, but now as their approach
"When he died, I was distraught. Only Amis could have that effect on me." Will Lloyd
Reporter for The Sunday Times Will Lloyd sits down with Jack Aldane on this ninth episode to discuss The Second Plane, a collection of twelve pieces of nonfiction and two short stories by Amis published in 2008, covering 9/11, the age of terrorism, Islamism and the follies of the Blair-Bush coalition.Will says Amis should be remembered as one of the greatest comic novelists ever to write
"Reading Money was like hearing The Clash for the first time." Graham Caveney
Journalist and memoirist Graham Caveney speaks to Jack Aldane on this eighth episode of the series about Martin Amis's iconoclastic fifth novel Money: A Suicide Note.He and the host discuss the novel's true subject, which runs counter to popular interpretation. Though Money is often celebrated as the quintessential novel of the 80s, Caveney argues it is as much if not predominantly a story about t
"Amis is at his best when he leans into his fears." Leo Robson
Leo Robson is a freelance writer whose work has featured in The New Yorker, Harpers and New Statesman, among others.In this episode, he and the series' host and producer Jack Aldane sit down to discuss Martin Amis's fourth novel Other People, a Mystery Story, published in 1981.Robson explains that Amis had many literary debts his fans can take pleasure in exploring, and that the novelist, much lik
"Reading Martin Amis makes you feel funnier, cleverer, more insightful." Alys Denby
Editor of Cap X Alys Denby discovered Martin Amis through a boy at university would she would later go on to marry. The first book of Amis's he leant her was Success, published in 1978.Success juxtaposes two lives set in the same era of social and economic transformation in Britain: that of well-bred Gregory Riding and his lowly foster brother Terence Service. The story is told through a two-way m
"Nobody has influenced my writing more than Martin Amis." James Marriott
Columnist, podcast and book reviewer for The London Times James Marriott joins Jack Aldane on Episode 5 to discuss The War Against Cliché , an anthology of Martin Amis's reviews and essays from 1971 to 2000. It was the book that changed James's approach to life, and especially writing.James tells Jack why, despite his never having been a devotee to Amis the novelist, Amis's journalism contain
"Not everyone even remotely has Amis's descriptive ability." Zoe Strimpel
Gender scholar, author and columnist Zoe Strimpel tells Jack Aldane about the "sexual sentimental education" she gleaned from Martin Amis’s novels as a young woman battling teenage angst.In particular, they discuss Amis's first novel, The Rachel Papers, which introduced Zoe to the dark corners of male heterosexuality through Amis's burgeoning comic prose style, and how the book's portrayal of sex
"You have to get into Amis, and you have to get past Amis." Janan Ganesh
Columnist for The Financial Times Janan Ganesh, speaks to Jack Aldane about the London he grew up in during the early 90s, and which is captured in one of Martin Amis's most celebrated novels, London Fields. Janan explains why, for years, he has consistently revisited the book (of which he owns multiple copies), and how he once found himself compulsively picking it up every day to consume 50-pages
"I should have kept that cigarette butt." Sam Leith
Author, journalist and literary editor for The Spectator, Sam Leith, tells Jack Aldane his story of meeting (and smoking with) Martin Amis, his reflections on Amis's lifelong role as "media whipping boy", and why he chose to talk about 'Dead Babies', Amis's second novel published in 1975.FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @mymartinamisFIND US ON YOUTUBE Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informati
"For my generation, he filled the skyline." Matt d'Ancona
Author, award-winning columnist and Editor at Large for The New European, Matt d'Ancona, tells the show's host Jack Aldane his story of discovering Martin Amis in the heady 1980s as one of a generation of what he calls "Fukuyama's Babies".Matt choses passages to read from Amis's memoir 'Experience', published in 2000.FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @mymartinamisFIND US ON YOUTUBE Hosted on Acast. See acast.
Welcome to My Martin Amis with Jack Aldane
In My Martin Amis, British journalist and host of The Booking Club podcast Jack Aldane talks to writers, critics and publicists who have something personal to say about the life and legacy of the last English novelist Martin Amis (1949-2023).Join him as they tell the story of how they discovered Amis's prose, the book that made them a fan, and what the author taught them about life and literatureS
