Book Signings

Andrew Davies, the TV writer, tells of how, meeting Kingsley Amis at a book signing, he said he was a great fan of Amis's but thought his latest book was not as good as a previous one. Amis replied: "Why, thank you very much. And what on earth makes you think I'm interested in the opinion of young shags like you? Bugger off now and a very good afternoon to you."
The first book I read by Kingsley Amis was his second which I found much more amusing than "Lucky Jim". Maybe "Lucky Jim" was more in keeping with the "angry young man" image that a lot of writers then assumed. Like a lot of artists his later works lacked something of the vivacity of those early ones; maybe, like a lot of writers who feel they wish to be taken seriously by critics, he strived to express something deep and failed because he had nothing deep to say. He started off "on the left" and later became a Thatcherite; then when that happened he had nothing to say except to be acidly critical of all he had stood for before. He became a thorn in the side of progressives or pseudo-progressives. And I'm afraid he became a rather comic figure as a result.
I don't know if he had a lot of people wanting him to sign a copy of his book; I hope he was not like two other "authors", or rather, autobiographers I saw in a Cardiff booksjhop who had no people interested in their books: Will Carling was one of them which was understandable since he was hated by Welsh rugby supporters; the other was Peter Barkworth whom I felt sorry for. I felt like going over to him to say how much I liked his acting.... but then I'd have felt obliged to buy his book!