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Amis' routine back in London has settled down after some turbulent times. "My second wife (Author Elizabeth Jane Howard) walked out on me about five years ago," he says, adding "thank God. I didn't say thank God then, of course, but I do now." He currently shares a house in north London with his first wife Hilary and her third husband. This unconventional menage has occasioned much gossip and speculation. Amis claims the arrangement is simply practical, convenient and mutually agreeable. He is obviously fond of "Hilly," to whom Stanley and the Women is dedicated, not only as the mother of their three children but as a new and trusted friend: "I feel, in a strange way, I'm really getting to know her now." Amis claims "good" relations with his younger son Martin, 36, who has established a solid reputation of his own as an author. A reference to Martin's novels evokes a guarded response: "Oh, you can't quote me on that." But the father praises his son's journalistic writings and deems him "a very clever young fellow."
That was what everyone once said about Kingsley Amis. Now he finds himself being compared with Evelyn Waugh. "I'm flattered," Amis says, "but the analogy is misleading. Waugh wrote very elegant comedy. His people spoke beautifully. Compared with his works, mine look like grim documentaries. You know," he goes on, "critics will accuse you of doing what you're trying to do. They will say things like 'This book is frightfully funny on page 18 and not funny at all on page 20.' That's just the effect I wanted. The standard critique on me goes something like this: 'Amis is good at catching the banalities of everyday speech.' Hmmm." He pauses. "Well, I hope so."