Kingsley Amis Quick Facts

Kingsley Amis, an English Novelist, Poet, Critic, and Teacher.

Profile

• Birth Name: Kingsley William Amis
• AKA: Sir Kingsley William Amis
• Date of Birth: April 16, 1922
• Place of Birth: Clapham, London, Middlesex, England, UK
• Zodiac Sign: Aries
• Date of Death: October 22, 1995
• Died at Age: 73
• Place of Death: St. Pancras Hospital, Camden, London, Middlesex, England, UK
• Place of Burial: Cremated at Golders Green Crematorium, London, UK
• Cause of Death: Stroke
• Ethnicity: White
• Nationality: British
• Father: William Robert Amis (1888-1963)
• Mother: Rosa Annie, née Lucas (1891-1957)
• Sexual Orientation: Straight
• Spouse(s):

1. Hilary Ann Bardwell (m. 1948–1965, divorced) (b. 1928-d. 2010)
2. Elizabeth Jane Howard (m. 1965–1983, divorced) (b. 1923-d. 2014)

• Children:

1. Son - Philip Amis (b. 1948)
2. Son-Martin Louis Amis (b. 1949)
3. Daughter- Sally Amis (1954-2000)

• Alma Mater: City of London School; St John's College, Oxford
• Kingsley Amis is Known for: his humorous but biting satire aimed at the pretensions of class society and the weakness of the individual
• Kingsley Amis is criticized for: his old-fashioned and prejudiced views, particularly with regard to women
• Kingsley Amis was influenced by: William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Charles Dickens (1812–1870), W.B. Yeats (1865–1939), Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
• Kingsley Amis’ Works Inspired: Philip Larkin (1922–1985), John Osborne (1929-1994)

Quotes

“I thought to myself how much more welcome a faculty the imagination would be if we could tell when it was at work and when not.” - Kingsley Amis, The Green Man

Major Themes

• Society and Class
• Art and Culture
• Injustice
• Women
• Alcohol and Drugs

Memorable Characters

• Jim Dixon
• John Lewis
• Patrick Standish
• Jenny Bunn
• Roger Micheldene
• Sir Roy Vandervane
• Rhiannon Weaver
• Muriel

Major Works

• The Russian Girl (1992)
• The Folks That Live on the Hill (1990)
• The Old Devils (1986)
• Russian Hide-and-Seek (1980)
• The Alteration (1976)
• The Riverside Villas Murder (1973)
• Girl, 20 (1971)
• The Anti-Death League (1966)
• One Fat Englishman (1963)
• The Green Man (1969)
• Take A Girl Like You (1960)
• Lucky Jim (1954)

Did You Know?

• Amis’ father, William Robert Amis was a mustard manufacturer’s clerk.
• Amis received his primary education from the City of London School.
• In the year 1941 he enrolled into St. John’s College, Oxford but his education was interrupted during World War II by his service as a lieutenant in the Royal Corps of Signals. After the end of the war in 1945, he returned to Oxford and resumed his studies and got a distinction in English.
• In 1946, Kingsley Amis joined the Communist Party of Great Britain.
• Amis was appointed as lecturer at the University of Wales Swansea in 1948.
• He penned his first novel Lucky Jim while working as lecturer at the University of Wales Swansea.
• Amis is labeled by many as a member of the Angry Young Men movement due to his mood and temperament reflected in Lucky Jim.
• Although Lucky Jim was a best seller in the UK, the book was sold only two thousand copies in the US in its first two years.
• He received the honorary title ‘Knight’ in 1990.
• Amis was a non believer of God.
• Amis had a close friendship with the poet Philip Larkin.
• Kingsley had two marriages and was divorced twice.
• He married his first wife Hilary Bardwell in 1948 and had three children with her.
• Amis’ marriage tended towards divorce soon after Hilary discovered his love affair with Elizabeth Jane Howard in 1963.
• After formal separation from Hilary in 1965, Amis married Jane in the same year. Again the marriage proved to be unsuccessful and they were divorced in 1983.
• Amis had no children with Jane.
• His eldest son Philip Amis is a collagist.
• His other son, Martin Amis is a novelist.
• Kingsley Amis suffered from a mild stroke in 1995 which worsened his already ill health.
• In his last years Amis stayed in the same house where his first wife Hilary lived with her third husband so that he could be cared for until his death.
• He won the Booker Prize in 1986 for The Old Devils.
• After death his body was cremated and the ashes were given to family or friend.
• Kingsley Amis was the key figure in postwar British culture as well as the greatest British comic novelist of his generation.

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