Editing Martin Amis (section)

==Early life==
Amis was born on 25 August 1949 at Radcliffe Maternity Hospital in [[Oxford]], England.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bradford |first=Richard |title=Martin Amis: The Biography |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=grmeBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT9 |date=3 November 2011 |publisher=Little, Brown Book Group |isbn=978-1-84901-850-0 |access-date=7 July 2023 |archive-date=7 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230707163535/https://books.google.com/books?id=grmeBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT9 |url-status=live }}</ref> His father, novelist [[Kingsley Amis]], was the son of a [[Mustard (condiment)|mustard]] manufacturer's clerk from [[Clapham]], London;<ref name=Stout/> his mother, [[Kingston upon Thames]]-born [[Hilary Kilmarnock|Hilary ("Hilly") Ann Bardwell]],<ref name="Woodcock1983">{{cite book |last=Woodcock |first=George |title=Twentieth Century Fiction |date=1983 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-17066-1 |page=36 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fgKwCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA36 |access-date=16 August 2022 |archive-date=16 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240616130527/https://books.google.com/books?id=fgKwCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA36#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> was the daughter of a [[Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs|Ministry of Agriculture]] civil servant.{{refn|group=n|Hilly Bardwell (21 July 1928 – 24 June 2010) was married three times, first to Kingsley Amis from 1948 to 1965, with whom she had three children, Philip, Martin, and Sally. Her second husband was [[D. R. Shackleton Bailey]] from 1967 to 1975, and finally, she married [[Alastair Boyd, 7th Baron Kilmarnock]], in 1977; they had one son, James, born in 1972.<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/books-obituaries/7880033/Hilly-Kilmarnock.html "Hilly Kilmarnock"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180829072209/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/books-obituaries/7880033/Hilly-Kilmarnock.html |date=29 August 2018 }}, ''The Daily Telegraph'', 8 July 2010.</ref>}} He had an elder brother, Philip; his younger sister, Sally – for whose birth [[Philip Larkin]] composed "Born Yesterday"<ref>{{cite web |last=Wetzsteon |first=Rachel |title=Philip Larkin and Happiness: On "Born Yesterday" |url=https://www.cprw.com/Misc/larkin1.htm |website=Contemporary Poetry Review |access-date=22 May 2023 |year=2010 |archive-date=16 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240616130523/https://www.cprw.com/Misc/larkin1.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> – died in 2000 at the age of 46. His parents married in 1948 in Oxford and divorced when Amis was 12 years old;<ref name="Calcutt2001">{{cite book |last=Calcutt |first=Andrew |title=Brit Cult: An A-z of British Pop Culture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9FwsAAAAYAAJ&q=%22parents%20were%20divorced%22 |publisher=Contemporary Books |year=2001 |page=25 |isbn=978-0-8092-9324-7 |access-date=10 January 2021 |archive-date=16 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240616130554/https://books.google.com/books?id=9FwsAAAAYAAJ&q=%22parents%20were%20divorced%22 |url-status=live }}</ref> following the separation, Hilly and the children decamped to [[Mallorca]], Spain, where they stayed for a while with [[Robert Graves]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Vallés |first=M. Elena |title=Cuando el novelista Martin Amis y su familia vivieron en Mallorca: un viaje en el tren de Sóller a Palma |url=https://www.diariodemallorca.es/cultura/2023/05/21/novelista-martin-amis-familia-vivieron-87671870.html |access-date=22 May 2023 |work=Diario de Mallorca |date=21 May 2023 |language=es |archive-date=22 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522094941/https://www.diariodemallorca.es/cultura/2023/05/21/novelista-martin-amis-familia-vivieron-87671870.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Amis attended a number of schools in the 1950s and 1960s, including an international school in Mallorca,<ref name="Inside Story"/> [[Bishop Gore School]] in [[Swansea]], and [[Cambridgeshire High School for Boys]], where he was described by one headmaster as "unusually unpromising".<ref name=Guardianbooksbio/> The acclaim that followed his father's first novel ''[[Lucky Jim]]'' (1954) sent the family to [[Princeton, New Jersey]], in the United States, where his father lectured.<ref name="GuardianObituary">{{cite news |last=Tonkin |first=Boyd |title=Martin Amis obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/may/20/martin-amis-obituary |access-date=20 May 2023 |newspaper=The Guardian |date=20 May 2023 |archive-date=16 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240616130529/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/may/20/martin-amis-obituary |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1965, at the age of 15, Amis played John Thornton in the film version of [[Richard Hughes (British writer)|Richard Hughes]]'s ''[[A High Wind in Jamaica (film)|A High Wind in Jamaica]]''.<ref name="GuardianObituary" /> At {{convert|5|ft|6|in}} tall, he referred to himself as a "short-arse" while a teenager.<ref>{{cite web|title=Martin Amis|work=Intelligent Life|url=http://moreintelligentlife.com/story/martin-papers-my-life-martin-amis|access-date=22 October 2013|archive-date=23 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131023055725/http://moreintelligentlife.com/story/martin-papers-my-life-martin-amis|url-status=live}}</ref> His father said Amis was not a bookish child and "read nothing but science fiction till he was fifteen or sixteen".<ref name="Brat">{{cite news |last=Michener |first=Charles |title=Britain's Brat of Letters |url=https://classic.esquire.com/article/1987/1/1/britains-brat-of-letters |newspaper=Esquire |access-date=22 May 2023 |date=1 January 1987 |archive-date=22 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522165641/https://classic.esquire.com/article/1987/1/1/britains-brat-of-letters |url-status=live }}</ref> Amis said he had read little more than comic books until his stepmother, the novelist [[Elizabeth Jane Howard]], introduced him to [[Jane Austen]], whom he often named as his earliest influence.<ref>{{cite news |last=Kennedy |first=Maev|author-link=Maev Kennedy |title=Martin Amis credits stepmother and Jane Austen for literary success |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/22/martin-amis-credits-elizabeth-jane-howard-jane-austen-literary-success |access-date=21 May 2023 |work=The Guardian |date=22 February 2014 |archive-date=16 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240616130529/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/22/martin-amis-credits-elizabeth-jane-howard-jane-austen-literary-success |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Inside Story">{{cite book |last=Amis |first=Martin |title=[[Inside Story (novel)|Inside Story]] |date=24 September 2020 |publisher=Jonathan Cape |location=London |isbn=978-0-593-31829-4 |chapter=Addendum: Elizabeth Jane Howard}}</ref> He graduated from [[Exeter College, Oxford]], with a [[congratulatory first]] in English, "the sort where you are called in for a [[thesis committee|viva]] and the examiners tell you how much they enjoyed reading your papers".<ref name="Leader2009">{{cite book |last=Leader |first=Zachary |title=The Life of Kingsley Amis |year=2009 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-307-49645-4 |page=614 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m6-jZ7FsQUcC&pg=PA614 |access-date=23 May 2023 |archive-date=21 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230521193214/https://books.google.com/books/?id=m6-jZ7FsQUcC&pg=PA614 |url-status=live }}</ref>

After graduating from Oxford in 1971, Amis wrote reviews of science-fiction novels under the ''nom de plume'' "Henry Tilney" ([[Northanger Abbey|a nod to Austen]]) in a column for ''[[The Observer]]''.<ref name="Hayes2006">{{cite book |last=Hayes |first=M. Hunter |editor-last=Keulks |editor-first=Gavin |title=Martin Amis: Postmodernism and Beyond |year=2006 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=London |isbn=978-0-230-59847-8 |page=198 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Cd_DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA198 |chapter=A Reluctant Leavesite: Martin Amis's "Higher Journalism" |access-date=21 May 2023 |archive-date=21 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230521191412/https://books.google.com/books?id=4Cd_DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA198 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="DiedrickHayes2006">{{cite book |last1=Diedrick |first1=James |last2=Hayes |first2=M. Hunter |editor-last=Keulks |editor-first=G. |title=Martin Amis: Postmodernism and Beyond |year=2006 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=London |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Cd_DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA195 |chapter=Nonfiction by Martin Amis, 1971–2005 |page=195 |isbn=9780230598478 |access-date=22 May 2023 |archive-date=22 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522205911/https://books.google.com/books?id=4Cd_DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA195 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{refn|group=n|His reviews included works by [[Asimov]], [[Blish]], [[John Brunner (author)|Brunner]], [[Arthur C. Clarke|Clarke]], [[Robert Silverberg|Silverberg]], [[Simak]], [[A.E. Van Vogt|Van Vogt]], [[Roger Zelazny|Zelazny]] and other leading writers in the field.<ref name="DiedrickHayes2006a">{{cite book |last1=Diedrick |first1=James |last2=Hayes |first2=M. Hunter |editor1-last=Keulks |editor1-first=G. |title=Martin Amis: Postmodernism and Beyond |year=2006 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=London |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Cd_DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA214 |chapter=Nonfiction by Martin Amis, 1971–2005 |page=214 |isbn=9780230598478 |access-date=22 May 2023 |archive-date=22 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522225931/https://books.google.com/books?id=4Cd_DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA214 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Terence Kilmartin]], ''The Observer''{{'}}s literary editor, said that the tryout review he asked Amis to produce was thought by his colleagues to be the "work of someone who'd been reviewing for twenty years".<ref name="Brat"/>}} He found an entry-level job at ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]'' by the summer of 1972.<ref name="Finney2013">{{cite book |last=Finney |first=Brian |title=Martin Amis |year=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-01542-7 |page=20 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2dri-2Ytc28C&pg=PT20 |access-date=21 May 2023 |archive-date=21 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230521185824/https://books.google.com/books?id=2dri-2Ytc28C&pg=PT20 |url-status=live }}</ref> At the age of 27, he became literary editor of the ''[[New Statesman]]'', where he cited writer and editor [[John Gross]] as his role model,<ref>{{cite web |title=Martin Amis on John Gross: 'Everything I write, I send by John's desk. I still do and I always will' {{!}} Martin Amis pays tribute to writer and mentor John Gross, memorial service, London, March 17, 2011 |date=21 December 2011 |via=YouTube |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ543iWyGLE |access-date=20 May 2023}}</ref> and met [[Christopher Hitchens]], then a feature writer for ''The Observer'', who remained Amis's closest friend until his death in 2011.<ref name=Garner />