Contents introduction

Amis was married twice. He married his first wife, Hilary Bardwell, in 1948. Together they had three children, the novelist Martin Amis, Phillip Amis and Sally Amis. Amis was continuously unfaithful to his wife, and the marriage disintegrated in when an affair with Elizabeth Jane Howard was revealed in 1963. Amis then married Howard in 1965. Again he was a serial philanderer, and the marriage ended in divorce in 1983. He was in poor health from his excessive drinking and moved in with his first wife and her husband. Amis lived with Hilary Bardwell and Alastair Boyd until his death. He suffered a stroke in 1995 and died on 22 October 1995.

Awards

Amis won the Man Booker Prize in 1986 for The Old Devils. He was knighted in 1990 by Elizabeth II of England.