Kingsley Amis next for Swansea blue plaque honour

ONE of Britain’s best ever writers will be honoured in Swansea next month.

Swansea Council is unveiling a blue plaque for Sir Kingsley Amis in the Uplands on Wednesday April 15.

Amis, the author of books including Lucky Jim, was a lecturer in English at Swansea University from 1949 to 1961. His blue plaque will be located outside 24 The Grove, the house where he first lived in Swansea.

In 2008, The Times newspaper named Amis the ninth best British writer since 1945.

Cllr Robert Francis-Davies, Swansea Council’s Cabinet Member for Enterprise, Development and Regeneration, said: “Although Amis wasn’t from Swansea, he spent 13 happy years in the city and his daughter was born here.

“He also wrote Lucky Jim during his time in Swansea – a global hit of a book, eventually translated into over 20 languages, that critics felt captured the flavour of 1950s Britain.

“Amis followed in the footsteps of other writers including Dylan Thomas and Vernon Watkins by using Swansea as an inspiration to publish work that took the world by storm.

“His links with Swansea thoroughly deserve blue plaque recognition here. He’ll be the ninth recipient of a blue plaque in two years.”

Amis was chiefly known as a comedic novelist but his prolific literary work also extended into poetry, essays, criticism, short stories, food and drink, anthologies and science fiction. A graduate of Oxford University, he was knighted in 1990 – five years before he died, aged 73.

Other recent blue plaque recipients in Swansea have included fuel cell pioneer Sir William Grove, polar explorer Edgar Evans and gothic novelist Ann of Swansea.

Musician Pete Ham, poet Vernon Watkins, women’s rights campaigner Emily Phipps, missionary Griffith John and Cwmdonkin Park have also been honoured.