General

Martin Amis finds someone new to insult

‘If I had a serious brain injury I might well write a children’s book’

British novelist Martin Amis, renowned for his inability to play well with others, has once again annoyed a slice of his fellow authors. Children’s literature, he recently remarked on the BBC’s new book program Faulks on Fiction, requires an author to be “conscious of who you’re directing the story to.” That, he said, “is anathema to me, because, in my view, fiction is freedom and any restraints on that are intolerable. I would never write about someone that forced me to write at a lower register than what I can write.” So far, an arguable point, but in true Amis fashion—this is the man who in 2009 claimed model-turned-memoirist Katie Price’s books sold because, “all we are really worshipping is two bags of silicone”—the author of Money and The Pregnant Widow went on to add his opinion of a kid-lit writer’s job requirement: “If I had a serious brain injury I might well write a children’s book.”

The Guardian

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