Martin Amis is one of the most celebrated of modern-day authors. A new collection rounds up his non-fiction pieces from 1986 to 2016, and this week five compelling topics are aired.

He was a friend of the renowned SF writer JG Ballard, apparently you never say 'Sci-Fi' for this genre. Anyway, Ballard wrote vivid works such as The Drowned World, High Rise, Cocaine Nights, which Amis now toasts. And despite the unsettling and dystopian worlds evoked, full of menace and breakdown, he recalls a genial and welcoming man, as well as a great father to three children after his wife dies.

Reader Bill Nighy

Producer Duncan Minshull. Show less