Visiting Mrs Nabokov And Other Excursions

Feb 24, 2026 9:08 AM

Author:Martin Amis

Fuelled by innumerable cigarettes, Martin Amis provides dazzling portraits of contemporaries and mentors alike: Larkin and Rushdie; Greene and Pritchett; Ballard and Burgess and Nicholson Baker; John Updike - warts and all. Vigorously zipping across to Washington, he exposes the double-think of nuke-speak; in New Orleans the Republican Convention gets a going over. And then there's sport: he visits the world of darts and its disastrous attempt to clean itself up; dirty tricks in the world of chess; and some brisk but vicious poker with Al Alvarez and David Mamet.

Sex without Madonna, expulsion from school, a Stones gig that should have been gagged, on set with Robocop or on court with Gabriela Sabatini, this is Martin Amis at his electric best.

Reviews

This collection reminds us of Amis's distinction and originality as a stylist

—— James Wood , Times Literary Supplement

Amis can out-sentence practically anyone. The firecracker returns of phrase are not just audacious, they're also accurate... Like Nabokov, Amis makes writing seem fun, serious fun

—— Geoff Dyer , Guardian

Amis is as talented a journalist as he is a novelist, but these essays all manifest an unusual extra quality, one that is not unlike friendship. He makes an effort; he makes readers feel that they are the only person there

—— Rachel Cusk , The Times

A superb journalist... It is Amis's jaunty, appalled and always avid watchfulness that makes in this collection true and truly enjoayable... Visiting Mrs Nabokov is a suitcase full of treats

—— John Banville , Irish Times

Margaret Forster has a remarkable gift for taking huge social issues and welding them into minutely observed human dramas that are perfect portraits of the way we live now...The story grips and the heart bleeds for these good mothers who are, like all mothers, never good enough

—— Polly Toynbee , Sunday Express

'McAdam's narrative weaves in virtuoso dialogue as well as genuine warmth-Exhilarating'

—— Observer

'Impressive and ambitious'

—— Independent

'A highly intelligent and moving book'

—— Time Out

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