Amis, Kingsley (William) (1922–1995)

English novelist and poet. He was associated early on with the Angry Young Men group of writers. His sharply ironic works include his first novel, the best-selling Lucky Jim (1954), a comic portrayal of life at a provincial university. His later novels include the satiric comedy The Old Devils (1986), for which he won the Booker Prize.

Amis was the son of a clerk in south London. After serving in the Royal Signals Corps during World War II, he attended Oxford University. At Oxford, he considered himself a communist, but eventually he became a staunch Conservative. He was a gifted and hard-working writer, determined to type 500 words each day. He was a lecturer at University College, Swansea, Wales (1949–61). He married twice, first in 1948 to Hilary, the mother of his two sons, including the novelist Martin Amis, and a daughter. In 1965, he married novelist Elizabeth Howard; they divorced in 1983. He was knighted in 1990.

His other novels, written in a variety of genres, include the spy story The Anti-Death League (1966), the ghost story The Green Man (1969), The Riverside Villas Murder (1973), which imitates a classic detective story, and The Alteration (1976), which imagines a 20th-century society dominated by the Catholic Church. His fascination with middle-aged sexuality is demonstrated in such novels as Stanley and the Women (1984). Later novels include Difficulties with the Girls (1988) and You Can't do Both (1994). His last novel The Biographer's Moustache was published in 1995. His poetry includes A Case of Samples: Poems 1946–56 (1956) and Collected Poems 1944–79 (1979). After his death, The Letters of Kingsley Amis (2000) was edited by Zachary Leader.