This was probably a lot more salacious in 1973, but I still find that somewhat hard to see. It’s a few weeks in the mind of a horny kid as he tries to seduce an ‘older woman’. It’s Amis’ first book. I read a bunch of Amis in the mid/late-2000’s and mostly loved it, so when I saw this in one of my favourite used bookshops shortly after he died, I thought I’d go back to see where he started.

This wasn’t as funny or as vulgar as I expected – like watching There’s Spmething About Mary but edited for television. The writing is great, and kind of indicative of who Amis would become, but if this had been my first book by him I don’t imagine there would have been a second. Even Amis himself agrees.