AMIS, Kingsley (William)

(1922-)

   UK novelist, poet and critic; father of Martin AMIS. He took his MA at Oxford, and was a lecturer in English at Swansea 1949-61 and Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge, 1961-3. Though KA is best known for such social comedies as his first novel, Lucky Jim (1954), which won him the sobriquet Angry Young Man, in the catch-phrase of the time, he has also been closely connected with sf throughout his professional life. He delivered a series of lectures on sf in 1959 at Princeton University, probably to their surprise since sf was presumably not the context in which he was invited to speak. Revised, these were published as a book, New Maps of Hell (1960 US), which was certainly the most influential critical work on sf up to that time, although not the most scholarly. It strongly emphasized the DYSTOPIAN elements of sf. KA, himself a satirist and debunker of note, saw sf as an ideal medium for satirical and sociological extrapolation; hitherto, most writing on sf had regarded it as primarily a literature of TECHNOLOGY. As a survey the book was one-sided and by no means thorough, but it was witty, perceptive and quietly revolutionary. KA went on to edit a memorable series of ANTHOLOGIES, Spectrum, with Robert CONQUEST (like KA a novelist, poet, political commentator and sf fan). They were Spectrum (anth 1961), Spectrum II (anth 1962), Spectrum III (anth 1963), Spectrum IV (anth 1965) and Spectrum V (anth 1966). These, too, were influential in popularizing sf in the UK and to some extent in rendering it respectable. The last of these volumes is selected almost entirely from ASF, a reflection, perhaps, of KA's increasing conservatism about HARD SF (and in his politics) which went along with a dislike for stories of the NEW WAVE, also evident in The Golden Age of Science Fiction (anth 1981) ed KA alone. As a writer, too, KA was influenced by sf. He wrote several sf short stories including Something Strange (1960), a minor tour de force about appearance and reality and about psychological conditioning. His short sf can mostly be found in My Enemy's Enemy (coll 1962) and later in Collected Short Stories (coll 1980; exp 1987). The Anti-Death League (1966) is an extravagant spy story featuring miniaturized nuclear devices. The James Bond pastiche Colonel Sun: A James Bond Adventure (1968) as by Robert Markham contains occasional sf elements. The fantasy The Green Man (1969), one of KA's best works, blends satirical social comedy with Gothic HORROR; it was dramatized as a miniseries by BBC TV in 1991. KA's major full-scale sf work is The Alteration (1976), set in an ALTERNATE WORLD in which the Reformation has not taken place and Roman Catholic domination has continued to the present. It won the JOHN W.CAMPBELL MEMORIAL AWARD for best sf novel in 1977. Russian Hide-and-Seek (1980) is a blackly amusing, pessimistic story about the vulnerability of English culture, set in a future England that has for decades been subject to the USSR. KA's controversial artistic evolution from supposed radical to national institution (during which he remained always his own man) was neatly summed up by his receipt of a knighthood in 1990. An autobiographical work is Memoirs (1991).

   See also: CHILDREN IN SF; CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL WORKS ABOUT SF; DEFINITIONS OF SF; FEMINISM; The MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION; RELIGION; SATIRE; SF IN THE CLASSROOM.