This is a fascinating critical study of the life, work and milieu of one of Britain's best known and most popular novelists. Starting with a biographical overview of the influences on the developing writer while at home, at school, at Oxford, and at war, Dale Salwak goes on to offer the general reader a lively interpretation of all of Amis's novels, from Lucky Jim (1954) through to The Folks That Live on the Hill (1990), set against the ever-changing backdrop of the twentieth century.