Martin Amis

"The first thing that distinguishes a writer is that he is most alive when alone."

Martin Amis was an English novelist, essayist and short story writer, the son of writer Kingsley Amis. His works include such novels as London Fields (1989) and The Information (1995). Amis's raw material is what he sees as the absurdity of the postmodern condition with its grotesque caricatures. He has thus sometimes been portrayed as the undisputed master of what the New York Times has called "the new unpleasantness."

The Guardian writes that "all his critics have noted what Kingsley Amis complained of as a 'terrible compulsive vividness in his style ... that constant demonstrating of his command of English' and it's true that the Amis-ness of Amis will be recognisable in any piece before he reaches his first full stop."