Renowned British novelist Martin Amis dies aged 73
Renowned British novelist Martin Amis has died at the age of 73.
The author died of oesophageal cancer on Friday at his home in Lake Worth, Florida, his wife the writer Isabel Fonseca said.
It was the same disease that killed his close friend, the journalist Christopher Hitchens.
Amis published 15 novels and is best known for his books Money: A Suicide Note and London Fields.
“We are devastated at the death of our author and friend, Martin Amis: novelist, essayist, memoirist, critic, stylist supreme,” his publisher Vintage Books said.
“For 40 years Martin Amis bestrode the world of UK publishing: first by defining what it meant to be a literary wunderkind by releasing his first novel at just 24; influencing a generation of prose stylists; and often summing up entire eras with his books, perhaps most notably with his classic novel, Money.
“He continually engaged with current events and the contemporary world, never afraid to tackle the biggest issues and questions of the day, in books including The Second Plane and his essay collection, The Rub of Time.
“At the same time his work often explored key periods in history, notably the Holocaust, which he wrote about uniquely and powerfully in novels such as Time’s Arrow and The Zone of Interest.
“Throughout it all, his love of literature shone fiercely: Experience, The War Against Cliche and others all brought a light up to the world he’d inhabited his entire life.”
Sir Kingsley Amis with his son Martin
Amis was the son of the well-known novelist Kingsley Amis, who came to fame with his book Lucky Jim and died in 1995.
The Booker Prize tweeted: “We are saddened to hear that Martin Amis, one of the most acclaimed and discussed novelists of the past 50 years, has died.
“Our thoughts are with his family and friends.”
Amis was twice listed for the Booker Prize for his novels Time’s Arrow and Yellow Dog. His memoir Experience was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
The author was born on 25 August 1949 in Oxford. He read nothing but comic books until his stepmother, the novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard, introduced him to Jane Austen, who he often cited as his earliest influence.
He studied English at Exeter College, Oxford, and graduated in 1971 with a congratulatory first.
Amis was part of a group of writers including Hitchens, Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan and Julian Barnes.
He is survived by his wife, Ms Fonseca, three daughters, Delilah Jeary, Fernanda Amis and Clio Amis, and two sons, Louis and Jacob Amis, as well as four grandchildren and his brother.
Anti-Trump protests took place across America on Saturday, with demonstrators decrying the administration’s immigration crackdown and mass firings at government agencies.
Events ranged from small local marches to a rally in front of the White House and a demonstration at a Massachusetts commemoration of the start of the Revolutionary War 250 years ago.
Thomas Bassford, 80, was at the battle reenactment with his two grandsons, as well as his partner and daughter.
He said: “This is a very perilous time in America for liberty. I wanted the boys to learn about the origins of this country and that sometimes we have to fight for freedom.”
At events across the country, people carried banners with slogans including “Trump fascist regime must go now!”, “No fear, no hate, no ICE in our state,” and “Fight fiercely, Harvard, fight,” referencing the university’s recent refusal to hand over much of its control to the government.
Some signs name-checked Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadorian citizen living in Maryland, who the Justice Department admits was mistakenly deported to his home country.
Read more: Donald Trump’s deportations explained
Pic: AP
People waved US flags, some of them held upside down to signal distress. In San Francisco, hundreds of people spelt out “Impeach & Remove” on a beach, also with an inverted US flag.
People walked through downtown Anchorage in Alaska with handmade signs listing reasons why they were demonstrating, including one that read: “No sign is BIG enough to list ALL of the reasons I’m here!”
Pic: AP
Protests also took place outside Tesla car dealerships against the role Elon Musk ahas played in downsizing the federal government as de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The protests come just two weeks after similar nationwide demonstrations.
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Organisers are opposing what they call Mr Trump’s civil rights violations and constitutional violations, including efforts to deport scores of immigrants and to scale back the federal government by firing thousands of government workers and effectively shuttering entire agencies.
The Trump administration, among other things, has moved to shutter Social Security Administration field offices, cut funding for government health programs and scale back protections for transgender people.
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