The Big Picture and the Closeup

I knew now that I had a susceptibility. I might never act on it, but I had it. What I did not have, it soon emerged, was a job.

Originally Kingsley Amis told me he would have to leave at around one. However, as I was apparently making the right impression, he then invited me to come along with him to what I later learned was a fixture in his life at the time, a Tuesday lunch gathering with various conservatively-minded writers at Bertorelli’s, an Italian restaurant. I was very impressed.