His career flags and he finds himself becoming depressed, writing book reviews, articles for a small literary magazine and sub-editing for a vanity press.

Barry enjoys a rarified life, with his agent striking lucrative deals for 'Amelior Regained' whilst Tull toils away with his unsuccessful pursuits.

The New York Times said, "Amis is quite dazzling here [...] drags a bit around the middle, but you're never out of reach of a sparkly phrase, stiletto metaphor or drop-dead insight into the human condition.

They're all the same book, a template worked over three times, retyped rather than rewritten [...] The Information reads like 500 pages of smart, highly finished extracts.

Secondly he received an almost unheard of advance for a literary novel (approximately £500,000 according to most sources)[6] which caused what was described as resentment and envy amongst his peers.