Richard Bradford’s Martin Amis: The Biography was one of the most controversial books of 2011. In conversation with fellow biographer D.J. Taylor, Bradford discusses some of the difficulties involved in writing the life of a living subject, his view of Amis’s achievements, his relationship with Amis during the time that the book was being written and the occasionally tortuous path from completion to publication.

Bradford is also author of biographies of Philip Larkin, Kingsley Amis and Alan Sillitoe. Taylor has written biographies of Thackeray and Orwell.