John Niven is a Scottish author and screenwriter whose books include Kill Your Friends, The Amateurs, The Second Coming. The F*ck-it List, and O Brother.
John discusses his favourite of Amis's novel, The Information, published in 1995. The Information follows two star-crossed writers, Gwyn Barry and Richard Tull. The pair have been friends since university, but now as their approach their mid years, Tull's once promising career is withering on the vine while Barry receives plaudits and more opportunities than he can manage.
John explains how the novel has aged like fine wine for him, both as a reader and writer whose career has mirrored both Tull and Barry's circumstances, though he is pleased to say it has settled somewhere comfortably in the middle of the two.
As John says, Amis occupied a rarefied place: a serious literary novelist who was at the same time incredibly funny. His hunch is that Amis will be read for decades to come. Time is, after all, the only true test of a writer's work.
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