RICHARD BRADFORD

Novelists, poets and playwrights live double lives, sharing the real world with everyone else while spending a good deal of time in a universe of their own making. When they fall out with each other, they are able to kindle feuds and antagonisms as passionate and public as workers in any trade. Richard Bradfords highly entertaining book looks at some of the closest and most complex relationships in literary history, as well as examining their dramatic effects on literature itself. - WHO WAS THE OBJECT OF COLERIDGES INFATUATION THAT DROVE A W EDGE BETWEEN HIMSELF AND WORDSWORTH? - WHERE DID THACKERAY UTTER THE SINGLE SENTENCE THAT ENDED HIS TENTATIVE FRIENDSHIP WITH DICKENS? - WHY DID DIFFERING OPINIONS LEAD TO THE CESSATION OF LETTERS BETWEEN FORMER CONFIDANTS AMIS AND LARKIN? - HOW DID HEMINGWAY USE AND ABUSE STEINS ARTISTIC CIRCLE IN PARIS? - WHAT AMERICAN L ITERARY AMBITION SPAWNED BRUTAL COMPETITION BETWEEN CAPOTE AND V IDAL? From Tolstoys deferred duelling and Dostoevskys defamatory fiction, to J. C. Squires qualms with modernism and Salman Rushdies run-in with Islam, Literary Rivals is an enjoyable romp through the world of the fiercest writers rivalries and the most bizarre literary stand-offs.

Kingsley Amis was a mimic, jester, father, husband, atheist, pseudo-socialist and clubland Tory boozer with a limitless taste for adultery; Philip Larkin a glum misanthrope who lived in self-imposed solitude. And yet, after meeting at St Johns, Oxford in 1941, this unlikely pair struck up a friendship to endure for more than forty years, despite a period of acrimony in the 1960s. From their early days of undergraduate ambitions and enthusiasms through to the bitterness of middle age, Richard Bradford charts the progress of a remarkable friendship, and shows how crucial it was to the making of these two literary giants. Without Larkins inspiration and input, Amis would never have written his award-winning debut, Lucky Jim; if not for Amiss overnight success, Larkin would never have abandoned his hopes of becoming a novelist and turned instead to verse. Larkins ensuing resentment would simmer beneath the surface of their relationship for years to come. Drawing on an enormous archive of letters, manuscripts and interviews, The Odd Couple not only offers a rare glimpse into the private correspondence of two controversial and eccentric men, it also illuminates some of the finest novels and poems of the twentieth century.

The first biography to examine Mailer's life as a twisted lens, offering a unique insight into the history of America from the end of World War II to the election of Barack Obama.Twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize, firstly in 1969 for The Armies of the Night and again in 1980 for The Executioner's Song, Norman Mailer's life comes as close as is possible to being the Great American Novel: beyond reason, inexplicable, wonderfully grotesque and addictive.The Naked and the Dead was acclaimed not so much for its intrinsic qualities but rather because it launched a brutally realistic sub-genre of military fiction - Catch 22 and MASH would not exist without it. Richard Bradford combs through Mailer's personal letters - to lovers and editors - which appear to be a rehearsal for his career as a shifty literary narcissist, and which shape the characters of one of the most widely celebrated World War II novels.

Martin Amiss life could itself provide the formula for an enthralling work of fiction. Son of one of the most popular and best-loved novelists of the post-War era, he has forged a groundbreaking manner of writing that owes nothing to the style of his father, nor indeed to anyone else. He relished and recorded the bizarre, turbulent atmosphere of Britain and the US during the 1970s and 80s, arguably the transformative period of the late 20th century. No other contemporary writer has proved so magnetic for the popular press: he has, despite himself, achieved celebrity status. Of late, his reputation as a novelist has been matched by his outspoken, challenging writing on contemporary global politics, and he has earned the status as the Orwell of the early 21st century.Martin Amis offers the real Martin Amis, a cabinet of contrasts: tortured, eloquently aloof, kind, obsessive, loved by women, a dedicated family man, often the architect of his own undoing, and a literary genius. Moreover, this fascinating biography discloses the autobiographical thread that runs through Amiss books.Richard Bradford has talked with Amis at length, questioned him on his childhood, his private history, his opinions and the inspiration for his fiction, and these exchanges are supplemented by interviews with a large number of his friends and fellow writers.Praise for Richard Bradfords previous titles:Praise for Lucky Him: The Life of Kingsley Amis:Nearly all critical biographies relate the work to the life - insidiously, tendentiously, helplessly. Richard Bradford is different: he does it convincingly, and with vigour. The result is an original and stimulating book. Martin AmisI found Bradfords approach refreshing. Rare among literary academics he writes clearly, doesnt show off and knows a lot about his subject. He presents a fascinating chronicle of the development of Amiss brilliant ear for speech... He also brings out the full extent of the symbiosis between Amis and his best friend Philip Larkin: in a way Larkin invented Amis.Craig BrownAt his better moments Bradford... rises to Amiss stylistic level.Humphrey Carpenter