War Against Cliché. An excerpt from Martin Amis’ foreword to his forthcoming collection of essays and reviews in which, among other things, he laments the passing of genuine criticism and heralds a kinder, gentler Amis:

“Readers of the present book are asked to keep an eye on the date lines which end these
pieces, for they span nearly thirty years. You hope to get more relaxed and confident over time;
and you should certainly get (or seem to get) kinder, simply by avoiding the stuff you are unlikely
to warm to. Enjoying being insulting is a youthful corruption of power. You lose your taste for it
when you realise how hard people try, how much they mind, and how long they remember. . .”