Kingsley Amis arrived on the English literary scene with the publication of his classic novel Lucky Jim in 1954, and few writers since have provoked such wildly disparate degrees of laughter, admiration, and dismay in the reading public. For better or worse, Amis was known almost as much for his personality as for his work as a novelist. His outspoken nature (one columnist called him a literary rottweiler), his unfashionable praise for Thatcherism, and his devotion to whiskey kept him in the public eye. But in this, the only authorized biography of Amis, Eric Jacobs skillfully captures that personality with sympathetic detail and healthy doses of Amisian wit, spinning a narrative that mirrors the sprightliness and originality of his subject"s work. "Fond and very readable." (The Observer)