Martin Amis, the enfant terrible of English letters

He smiled little, to say the least. Only a photo from 1995 shows him playful as he hugs his old buddy Salman Rushdie. Along with the author of The Satanic Verses, Martin Amis belonged to this golden generation of British literature that included authors such as Julian Barnes, Jonathan Coe, Hanif Kureishi, Ian McEwan, Jonathan Swift, Kazuo Ishiguro...

Born in Swansea, South Wales, on August 25, 1949, Martin Amis was distinguished from his little comrades by his glorious ancestry. His father, novelist Kingsley Amis (1922-1995), was one of the leading figures in the Angry Young Men movement, which emerged in the 1950s. The characters in the novels and plays of these authors had in common to take a critical, even acid, look at society.

Read alsoInside story, by Martin Amis: a life in 700 pages

Dogs do not make cats, the young Martin, after having cut his teeth in journalism at the Times Literary Supplement, then at the New Statesman, began in 1973 with The...

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