Zadie Smith: Martin Amis riled me with questions like 'Women not funny. Discuss?'
An esteemed crowd was drawn to Trafalgar Square yesterday for the memorial of novelist Martin Amis, who died last year aged 73. Titans of literature, journalism and theatre spoke at the service, held at the aptly named St Martin-in-the-Fields church. Fellow novelist Ian McEwan opened proceedings, describing Amis — author of Money, London Fields and much else — as “the funniest man I ever met”.
There was a jovial atmosphere as actor Bill Nighy gave a reading from Money. He recalled that there was once as much anticipation for the release of a new Amis novel as a new Rolling Stones album.
Author Zadie Smith spoke of worshipping Amis “like a cult follower” in her youth, until the pair became friends and Amis would deliberately rile her up with questions like: “Women not funny. Discuss?”
Amis was 24 when his first novel, The Rachel Papers, was published. At the time he was dating a 19-year-old Tina Brown, who went on to become editor of Tatler, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. Brown recalled that meeting Martin’s father, the novelist Kingsley Amis, was a “terrifying test you had to pass”. According to Martin, Kingsley’s only comment about Brown after their first meeting was “nice t**s”.
Other guests at the service included Nigella Lawson, Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour and The Remains of the Day author Kazuo Ishiguro.
Director Jonathan Glazer, who recently adapted Amis’s novel The Zone of Interest into an Oscar-winning film, was also there.
After the service, guests headed down the Strand to Somerset House for an after-party. The cocktail bar was drunk dry within half an hour and they had to make do with wine. Amis was famously an inveterate smoker, and guests lit cigarettes in tribute to him on the Somerset House river terrace.
