The Alteration

Kingsley Amis is generally considered one of the "angry young men" of the 1950s. He was born in London in 1922 and educated at the City of London School. He received a degree in English language and literature from St. John's College, Oxford, in 1947. Until 1961 Amis lectured in English at University College, Swansea, and for the following two years at Cambridge. In 1947 Amis published his first collection of poems, Bright November. Frame of Mind followed in 1953 and Poems: Fantasy Portraits in 1954. His first novel, Lucky Jim (1954), established his reputation as a writer. He followed with That Uncertain Feeling (1956), and I Like It Here (1958). A longtime James Bond devotee, Amis wrote a James Bond adventure after the death of Ian Fleming in 1964. Amis's study of the famous spy was titled The James Bond Dossier (1965). Amis received the Booker Prize for the Old Devils (1986). Amis's later works include Memoirs (1990), and The King's English, a collection of essays on the craft of writing well. Amis was knighted in 1990. He died in 1995.