Amis

KINGSLEY AMIS (1922 - 1992)

The only significant connection Amis had with the North (though he mentions South Shields and Morpeth in passing) is when he was conscripted into the army and arrived at Catterick, via Darlington in July 1942. He became an officer in the Royal Signals and was posted to various locations round the country (including two returns to Catterick) before going to Europe after D-Day. One of his stories 'Rhapsody' involves a girl he meets at the Kings Head in Richmond. In his novel The Old Devils, which won the Booker Prize in 1986, Muriel Thomas writes long letters, reassuring her Welsh friends that there is cultural life in Middlesbrough. The recipients are pompously sceptical. This no doubt reflects Amis's affectionate feelings for Swansea and the scepticism of his London friends.

Amis applied to Durham University for a job in 1949 before going to Swansea. His famous novel Lucky Jim supposedly has echoes of Swansea and Leicester, but Jim's university was originally set in the North of England, and called Hamberton (from Hambleton Hills, no doubt) and Jim Dixon himself is a northerner.

In August 1990, Amis stayed for three weeks with George Gale, the journalist, and his wife Mary in Alnwick. He writes on a postcard of 24 August to his son, Martin:

'... Lots of wheat, sheep, etc. here. Stone walls. But lots of pubs. Everything is a long way from everywhere, like the US...'

In a letter of 4 September, Amis remembers the sweeping landscape '... so different from anything else in my experience (bar the bits near Catterick).' He recalls Charles Cresswell of Bamburgh Hall; Sarajane Bridgeman of Fallodon hall, and Anne Walton, cookery writer and owner of the Rosedean farm shop at Wooperton, near Alnwick. While staying with the Gales, he entertained them to dinner at 21 Queen Street, the restaurant on Newcastle Quayside, and used the occasion as his restaurant review for Harpers and Queen. It appeared in the December 1990 issue. When George Gale died in November 1990, Amis travelled north with his ex-wife Hilly and daughter Sally to the funeral in Alnwick.

Myers Literary Guide:	The North-East
KINGSLEY AMIS (1922 - 1992) The only significant connection Amis had with the North (though he mentions South Shields and Morpeth in passing) is when he was conscripted into the army and arrived at Catterick, via Darlington in July 1942. He became an officer in the Royal Signals and was posted to various locations round the country (including two returns to Catterick) before going to Europe after D-Day. One of his stories 'Rhapsody' involves a girl he meets at the Kings Head in Richmond. In his novel The Old Devils, which won the Booker Prize in 1986, Muriel Thomas writes long letters, reassuring her Welsh friends that there is cultural life in Middlesbrough. The recipients are pompously sceptical. This no doubt reflects Amis's affectionate feelings for Swansea and the scepticism of his London friends. Amis applied to Durham University for a job in 1949 before going to Swansea. His famous novel Lucky Jim supposedly has echoes of Swansea and Leicester, but Jim's university was originally set in the North of England, and called Hamberton (from Hambleton Hills, no doubt) and Jim Dixon himself is a northerner. In August 1990, Amis stayed for three weeks with George Gale, the journalist, and his wife Mary in Alnwick. He writes on a postcard of 24 August to his son, Martin: '... Lots of wheat, sheep, etc. here. Stone walls. But lots of pubs. Everything is a long way from everywhere, like the US...' In a letter of 4 September, Amis remembers the sweeping landscape '... so different from anything else in my experience (bar the bits near Catterick).' He recalls Charles Cresswell of Bamburgh Hall; Sarajane Bridgeman of Fallodon hall, and Anne Walton, cookery writer and owner of the Rosedean farm shop at Wooperton, near Alnwick. While staying with the Gales, he entertained them to dinner at 21 Queen Street, the restaurant on Newcastle Quayside, and used the occasion as his restaurant review for Harpers and Queen. It appeared in the December 1990 issue. When George Gale died in November 1990, Amis travelled north with his ex-wife Hilly and daughter Sally to the funeral in Alnwick.
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