Dubai: Renowned English author Martin Amis has spoken out against the English press, saying "everything I say gets twisted and distorted". He spoke out in reference to a quote printed in January, 2010, of euthanasia and the elderly.
"There’ll be a population of demented very old people, like an invasion of terrible immigrants, stinking out the restaurants and cafes and shops," Amis was quoted in The Times earlier this year.
The quote was "immediately taken up by literalists and humourless everywhere", he said at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature on Thursday evening, continuing that "when Sir Terry Pratchett made the same remarks, it was not taken up at all".
Amis was sure to specify which segment of the British press he was speaking about, saying that he had "no problem" with the Scottish, Irish or Welsh, but with the English, "metropolitan journalists". "There's nothing controversial in what I say," he said.
Amis also labelled Italians "a marvellously ungovernable people" continuing that when he sees someone Italian, he always "apologises for Berlusconi".
Amis, speaking to a full house at the second Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, is known to be outspoken and has been accused of mysogeny and islamaphobia in the past.
"They're ashamed of the political culture in Italy", he said of the country's citizens.
However, Amis was highly complimentary about Italy's landscape, saying of the times he visited that he felt like he was "in an oil painting".Even the poverty in Italy has "a certain grace" he said.
Amis' most recent novel The Pregnant Widow follows a group of young people on holiday during a heady summer in an Italian castle.
