LoveReading Says
Writing the biography of a subject still living is fraught with difficulty. The life has not yet run its course – we can’t see the whole picture and many people may find it hard to say what they really think. With this in mind Richard Bradford has done a good job on providing an overview of Martin Amis, famous as a son and famous in his own right, particularly useful for readers wanting background and context to the novels and, as all good biographies should do it spurs the reader back to the subject’s work with a new, fresh eye on the writing.
Like for Like Reading
The War against Cliche: Essays and Reviews 1971-2000, Martin Amis
Experience, Martin Amis
Sue Baker
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Martin Amis : The Biography Synopsis
Son of one of the most popular and best-loved novelists of the post-War era, he has forged a groundbreaking manner of writing that owes nothing to the style of his father, nor indeed to anyone else. He relished and recorded the bizarre, turbulent atmosphere of Britain and the US during the 1970s and 80s, arguably the transformative period of the late 20th century.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781780332291 |
| Publication date: |
21st June 2012 |
| Author: |
Richard Bradford |
| Publisher: |
Constable an imprint of Constable and Robinson |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
464 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Biographies & Autobiographies
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| Recommendations: |
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Richard Bradford Press Reviews
Praise for Richard Bradford's previous titles:
Praise for Lucky Him: The Life of Kingsley Amis:
'Nearly all critical biographies relate the work to the life - insidiously, tendentiously, helplessly. Richard Bradford is different: he does it convincingly, and with vigour. The result is an original and stimulating book.' - Martin Amis
'I found Bradford's approach refreshing. Rare among literary academics he writes clearly, doesn't show off and knows a lot about his subject. He presents a fascinating chronicle of the development of Amis' brilliant ear for speech...He also brings out the full extent of the symbiosis between Amis and his best friend Philip Larkin: in a way Larkin invented Amis' - Craig Brown
'At his better moments Bradford...rises to Amis' stylistic level.' - Humphrey Carpenter
Praise for First Boredom, Then Fear: The Life of Philip Larkin:
'This book, easily the best on Larkin yet to appear, is a masterful analysis of the weirdly fatalistic interweaving of his life and his writing ...A great biography of a great artistic genius. Utterly magnificent' - Roger Lewis
'Bradford [is] intent on providing a corrective to Andrew Motion's Philip Larkin: A Writer's Life [and] does place welcome emphases on matters that Motion for all his comprehensiveness glided over perhaps too lightly. In particular Bradford's portrait of Larkin's father is far more interesting and, one suspects, more fair than Motion's' - John Banville
About Richard Bradford
Born in Derbyshire in 1957, Richard Bradford was educated at the University of Wales and at Oxford. He has held academic posts in Oxford, Wales and Trinity College, Dublin. He is currently and Research Professor in English at the University of Ulster. He has published twenty books, including Lucky Him: The Life of Kingsley Amis (2001), First Boredom, Then Fear: The Life of Philip Larkin (2005) and The Life of A Long Distance Writer: The Authorised Biography of Alan Sillitoe.
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