Kingsley William Amis was born on April 16th 1922. At the young age of eleven, Amis wrote his first deliberate prose and was encouraged to do so by family and teachers at Norbury College, in which he was enrolled. In 1941 he attended Oxford University where he associated with a group of students come to be known as "Angry Young Men" – a cliché somewhat distilled to describe an outspoken group of play-writes and authors shortly after the war. The group was touted by the press of the time as radical rich-haters.

Having graduated, Amis remained in the close-knit circles of Oxford, lecturing until 1963, when he left academia to focus on his writing. "Lucky Jim", his first novel has direct links to the people and places of his time with the "Angry Young Men". This novel propelled Amis into international acclaim and the style of novel proved immensely popular in its era.

Amis was engaged to write two non-fiction works based on the cannon of 007, the first "The James Bond Dossier", a critical analysis of Fleming’s work and the second, "The Book of Bond, or Every Man his Own 007", under the somewhat silly pen-name of Bill Tanner.

Full MI6 Kingsley Amis biography