Kingsley amis biography

Sir Kingsley William Amis (April 16, – October 22, ) was an English poet, academic, novelist, and teacher. Amis was considered an anti-authority revolutionary, as well as one of the "angry young men" of the s (though he denied his participation). In time some came to consider him a reactionary. His early struggle with money and education instilled in Amis the desire to create his destiny and make his life more than what others thought it could be.

He was a highly intelligent and witty man whose writings reflect his deep awareness of the complexities of human nature. His works take a humorous yet highly critical look at British society, especially of the period following the end of World War II in Amis penned over 20 novels, published three collections of poetry, and wrote short stories and scripts for radio and television. His later writings showed his maturity as a critic and consisted mainly of books concerned with purely social and literary criticism. Amis is also kn

•

Kingsley Amis: Biography

Here is a look at the most important events in the life of Kingsley Amis.

Early life and education

Kingsley Amis was born on 16 April in London and raised in Norbury, a small community south of London. The writer recalls feeling a great deal of boredom in his dull middle-class upbringing and found escape in literature at an early age. Amis excelled at school and published his first short story in the school magazine at

Following his father's footsteps, Amis attended the City of London School for a year before winning a scholarship to study English at Oxford University in Historically, the student body of Oxford was exclusively made up of children from Britain's wealthiest and most powerful families. Amis' lower middle-class background made him stand out, and the writer developed a deep suspicion of the upper classes. This sense of class tension would become a recurring theme in many of his works.

Fig. 1 - At Oxford, Amis found himself surrounded b

•

Kingsley Amis

English author, critic and teacher (–)

Sir Kingsley William AmisCBE (16 April – 22 October ) was an English novelist, poet, critic and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social and literary criticism. He is best known for satirical comedies such as Lucky Jim (), One Fat Englishman (), Ending Up (), Jake's Thing () and The Old Devils ().^[1]

His biographer Zachary Leader called Amis "the finest English comic novelist of the second half of the twentieth century". In , The Times ranked him ninth on a list of the 50 greatest British writers since ^[2] He was the father of the novelist Martin Amis.

Life and career

[edit]

Kingsley Amis was born on 16 April in Clapham, south London, the only child of William Robert Amis (–), a clerk—"quite an important one, fluent in Spanish and responsible for exporting mustard to South America"—for the must