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When Martin Amis moved from W London to Brooklyn, his American wife made one thing clear: the greatest obstacle they would face "the most time-consuming and labour-intensive, the most tediously labyrinthine and the most extortionate" would be healthcare

- CHARLOTTE GRIMSHAW

Once he'd looked into it, Amis concluded that if any of his family came down with an ailment, it would be "far simpler and thriftier" for all four of them to fly first class to London, book four limousines, check into the Savoy and visit the NHS.

He was soon embroiled in American healthcare, as he helped his friend, the writer Christopher Hitchens, undergo treatments for oesophageal cancer. Hitchens' long medical ordeal is recorded in Inside Story, Amis' 2020 novel in which the principal characters included Amis and Hitchens.

In the US, he watched Hitchens (aka the Hitch) go through elaborate and gruelling treatments. He wrote about it in brilliant and moving detail, and then he must, not long after publishing, have received the same cancer diagnosis. He would have known exactly what he was in for. In Inside Story, he effectively wrote about his own death.