To mark the passing of one of Britain's most celebrated writers, we’re replaying an event recorded with us in November 2020.
Martin Amis was often called the Mick Jagger of the British book world. As famous for his love affairs, his friendships and his complicated family history as for his dazzling prose, he dominated the literary scene for decades.
In this exclusive Intelligence Squared event, made in partnership with Penguin Live, he speaks about his much anticipated autobiographical novel Inside Story. It is perhaps Amis’s most intimate book, a meditation on love, loss, ageing and death. We encounter the vivid characters who have helped define Amis – his father Kingsley, his literary hero Saul Bellow, the poet Philip Larkin and his novelist stepmother Elizabeth Jane Howard.
And of course there is his lifelong friend and conversation partner, Christopher Hitchens, whose death from cancer he chronicles in some of the tenderest prose he has ever written.
In conversation with novelist Alex Preston, Amis reflects on his life and work and explore the hardest questions we all face: how to live, how to grieve, and how to die.
This podcast was produced by Executive Producer Hannah Kaye with editing by Executive Producer Rowan Slaney
To hear the full length episode in which Amis goes into the urgency of youth, the legacy we leave, and dealing with the death of Hitchens, become an Intelligence Squared Supporter today, just visit IntelligenceSquared.com/members
—
We’d love to hear your feedback and what you think we should talk about next, who we should have on and what our future debates should be.
Send us an email or voice note with your thoughts to podcasts@intelligencesquared.com or Tweet us @intelligence2.
And if you’d like to support our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations, as well as ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content, early access and much more, become a supporter of Intelligence Squared today.
Just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How the Legacy of the British Empire Still Shapes Our World, with Sathnam Sanghera
Archive: Doughnut Economics, with Kate Raworth
The Circle of Life, with Joe Roman
The World in 2024 with Niall Ferguson: Crisis, Conflict and Consequences, Part Two
The World in 2024 with Niall Ferguson: Crisis, Conflict and Consequences, Part One
George the Poet on Combatting the War on Blackness
Searching for Another England, with Caroline Lucas and Grace Blakeley, Part Two
Searching for Another England, with Caroline Lucas and Grace Blakeley, Part One
Arash Azizi on Iran's Turbulent Past and its Uncertain Future
Getting Weird with Physics, with Harry Cliff
Istanbul: Crossroads of the World, with Alexander Christie-Miller
Keir Starmer, Will Hutton, Alastair Campbell and Sonia Sodha on How to Remake Britain, Part Two
Keir Starmer, Will Hutton, Alastair Campbell and Sonia Sodha on How to Remake Britain, Part One
The Great London Novel, with Andrew O'Hagan
The F Word: Re-evaluating Society's Approach to Body Image, with Kate Manne
Unlocking the Power of Memory, with Charan Ranganath
Going Nuclear: Could a Catastrophic Conflict Take Place? with Annie Jacobsen
Finding the Story within Ordinary Human Failings, with Megan Nolan
Why We Need to Slow Down to Save the Planet, with Kohei Saito
A Journey Into Our Geopolitical Future, with Elliot Ackerman
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free