Books by Kingsley Amis
Kingsley Amis (1922-1995) was an English novelist with a taste for comic novels and satire. He wrote more than 20 novels as well as a number of nonfiction books but remains best known for his debut novel, Lucky Jim.
“Chronologically speaking, Colonel Sun takes place shortly after the events of The Man with the Golden Gun. Bond is still recovering from a gunshot wound that he sustained from Scaramanga. It starts with him playing golf with his best friend in the service, Bill Tanner. And unbeknownst to them, they’re being watche…What he takes from Fleming is writing about the culture. In this case, there is a heavy emphasis on Greece. The standout sequence in the book is definitely the torture that Bond goes through.” Read more...
“This is Kingsley Amis’s best novel, and maybe the best novel ever written about university life. The main character, Jim Dixon, is one of the great scoundrels in literature, but you love him.” Read more...
Andy Borowitz recommends the best Comic Writing
Andy Borowitz, Comedians & Humorist
Interviews where books by Kingsley Amis were recommended
The Best Campus Novels
Life in an academic institution can be a curiously intense experience. As a result, the hot-house atmosphere of a university campus or boarding school presents a fitting backdrop for novels exploring ambition, power dynamics, crushes, and sexual crises. Here, we’ve pulled together a list of campus novels that have been recommended on Five Books over the years, via our interviews with literary scholars, bestselling authors and book prize judges.
Andy Borowitz recommends the best Comic Writing
Do you have to be cruel to be comedic? It often helps, says bestselling humour writer, Andy Borowitz. He picks his favourite comic novels.
The Best Post-Fleming James Bond Books, recommended by Mark Edlitz
The British author Ian Fleming (1908-1964) wrote only 12 James Bond novels, but dozens more have been published since his death. Mark Edlitz, author of James Bond After Fleming, guides us through the ‘continuation novels,’ starting with Kingsley Amis in 1968.
