WILL PAVIA

When I saw Martin Amis in 2018, he looked frail

The writer spent his final years in America, his wit as sharp as ever, but his physical health weakening, writes Will Pavia
Martin Amis
Martin Amis
SOPHIE BASSOULS/SYGMA/SYGMA VIA GETTY IMAGES

The first time I met Martin Amis, his house in Brooklyn had been destroyed by fire and he was lodging at his mother-in-law’s, a lovely place in Greenwich Village. He made me a cup of tea and sat on a sofa, his head against a cushion, smoking an e-cigarette with a blue light winking at the end of it.

I wasn’t an expert on Amis beyond having read a few of his books and having the vague idea that quite a lot of people in Britain didn’t like him. Amis had this idea too. He was seen as “sneering, superior,” he said. It was less pronounced in America, he said, where his father Kingsley was less well known. But in Britain, “I’m sort of Prince