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At a whacking great 1212 pages, offering 800+ actual letters, it's tantamount to cheating to have this as just one of my top ten.
I met Sir Kingsley on a number of occasions (usually in the role of party PR flack entrusted with producing the bottle of The Macallan rather than subject Sir to the standard muck everyone was imbibing, and hence risk him storming out). As Secker & Warburg's PR, I also had dealings with Amis fils, Martin, in his role as Lit Ed of the New Statesman. None of which has anything to do with my choice of this marvelous (and marvelously edited) collection of letters that I hope I will continue to dip into til my dying day.
Amis achieved fame in 1954 with his glorious first novel, Lucky Jim. His was still a generation that heeded literacy. Indeed, to let a sloppy phrase thru was to invite a sharp comment and sneer back from the letter's recipient, unlike today's illiterati who practically bask in showing a monosyllabic ignorance and disrespect for decent vocabulary.
My favorites here are KA's exchanges with the equally curmudgeonly and misanthropic Philip Larkin, whose shared love of jazz enlivens even the most banal exchanges.
Above all, Amis is funny, indiscreet and assured, and I have a feeling that he enjoyed the very act of writing these letters, just for the sake of crafting wit and trenchant opinions.
They capture the England of the time, which I only viewed as an imprisoned schoolboy, and they provide insight into the process of writing, with all its fustrations, jealousies and self-doubts.
The sheer outrageousness of some of the vehemently expressed opinions will have you laughing out loud, as will many of the spoofs - Amis was an ace parodist with an appreciative and knowledgeable audience among his correspondents.
What above all makes this such a special book is the page after page celebration of the English language - how it should be used, its comic possibilities, and its joyful triumphs in the hands of a master.
