Something’s amiss for Amis
QUESTION Did Martin Amis catch a U.S. author passing off one of his stories as his own?
U.S. WRITER Jacob Epstein published his first novel Wild Oats in 1979 when he was at Yale University.
He had a solid literary pedigree: his father, Jason, was vice-president of the publisher Random House and his mother, Barbara, was an editor at The New York Review Of Books.
New York magazine gave the novel a glowing review, praising its ‘swift, funny intersection of coincidences and reunions’. Unfortunately, one British reviewer was not so effusive. Writing in The Observer, author Martin Amis said he had found 50 significant similarities between Wild Oats and his own first novel, The Rachel Papers, published in 1973.
Both feature ageing, balding men as lovers. The character in Wild Oats has ‘two gray-coloured, wiry wings on either side of his otherwise hairless head’. Amis’s character has ‘two grey-coloured, wirey wings on either side of his hair-free head’. ‘Well, at least Epstein changed the spelling,’ Amis observed.
Interestingly, Amis admitted he had borrowed this passage. ‘That bit about “wiry wings,” for example, was stolen by me from Dickens’ — Our Mutual Friend. Dickens was, of course, out of copyright.
Other passages in Wild Oats appeared to have been lifted from The Rachel Papers. Amis wrote: ‘My legs started off, at first spastically shooting out in all directions, then co-ordinating into a groovy shuffle.’
Epstein’s version was: ‘Billy started toward her, legs spastically shooting out in all directions at first, then co-ordinating into a groovy shuffle.’
‘He wasn’t influenced by The Rachel Papers,’ said Amis. ‘He had it flattened out beside his typewriter.’
Epstein apologised and admitted to the plagiarism, but claimed that it was unintentional. Amis did not take legal action: ‘I’m not terrifically indignant, but just feel it ought to be made public.’ Epstein moved to Hollywood and became a successful scriptwriter on Hill Street Blues and L.A. Law.
Laurence Wilson, Formby, Lancs.
QUESTION Can Britain be hit by a hurricane?
A HURRICANE is a storm that needs a tropical environment in which to develop and thrive, and sea surface temperatures of 26c or more.
Britain’s warmest sea temperatures range from 10c in winter to 20c in summer. You would have to travel at least 1,000 miles south-west to find water that is warm enough to allow a hurricane to form.
However, when a hurricane dies and its remnants are swept up by the jet stream, Britain can be affected. The jet stream recycles the leftover energy and moisture into an area of low pressure, bringing strong winds and heavy rain.
The Great Storm of October 1987 was a violent example of a hurricane that had changed into an area of low pressure by the time its remnants reached landfall. Gusts of wind in southern and eastern England were in excess of 80mph, with the highest recorded in Gorleston, Norfolk, at 122mph.
This was the equivalent force of a hurricane and the storm caused power cuts, flooding and 18 deaths. But, technically speaking, it was a very powerful variant of the mid-latitude low pressure systems we typically see in autumn.
Emilie Lamplough, Trowbridge, Wilts.