Is her womanising father the REAL reason Anna

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AGCSE in Sanskrit? It's a
doddle for geniuses aged
five
Is her womanising father the
REAL reason ex-newsreader
Anna Ford hates Martin Amis?
By JANE FRYER
Last updated at 1:41 PM on 22nd February 2010
Comments (26)
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Martin Amis has been accused of many things over the years: vanity, misogyny,
infidelity, selfishness, greed, outrageous egotism, self-publicity - the list is endless.
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He has offended, argued with and alienated countless friends, colleagues and lovers
as he and his seemingly enormous ego have trampled over them, keenly aware of his
own utter brilliance while alarmingly unaware of other people's sensitivities.
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Fun in Hawaii
This week, however, the novelist may just have met his match - in broadcaster Anna
Ford.
The former BBC and ITN news presenter and Seventies feminist icon has accused
him in an open letter of being a 'whingeing narcissist' with 'social autism' who has
embroidered his past for the benefit of the public.
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Strained relationship: Anna Ford chats to author Martin Amis at a party in 1983
She adds for good measure that he 'needs to see a psychiatrist'.
It all started last week when Amis wrote a newspaper article in which he said he had
been 'recklessly distorted' and misrepresented by the Press, most recently in reports
about his calls for 'euthanasia booths' for the elderly.
He also insisted he was not being 'controversial on purpose' in order to gain publicity
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secret... skipping
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He also insisted he was not being 'controversial on purpose' in order to gain publicity
for his latest novel - though this is a man who is rarely out of the headlines when he
has a new book to promote.
Ford claims she snapped after reading his article and decided to write an open letter
to Amis in the pages of the Guardian.
'I thought: "Oh, for heaven's sake, there's Martin whingeing again. He's really ought to
just stop," ' she says.
'If you're going to be a controversial writer, you have to expect people to have an
opinion about you and you have to take the rough with the smooth.
'It's this unattractive, immature whingeing that really gets to me.'
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Anna and Martin have known each other
for more than 30 years. He was a friend
of her late husband, the publisher and
cartoonist Mark Boxer - they met at a
party Mark was throwing for Amis in the
early Eighties. And it turns out Anna has
loathed him pretty much ever since.
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She says her animosity is based on two
first-hand incidents of his appallingly
selfish behaviour.
When Mark was dying from a brain
tumour in 1988, Amis visited him at the
couple's West London home. Not only
did he overstay his welcome, leaving
Mark 'exhausted', but he also smoked at
his bedside.
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But what infuriated her even more was
that, as she discovered later, Amis had
hung around so long only because he
was 'filling in time before he caught a
plane at Heathrow'.
Amis made matters worse when he later
wrote an article about his tears as he left
the house. 'I saw no evidence of these,'
says Anna.
The second event was when Amis came
to dinner one evening to see his teenage
goddaughter Claire, Anna and Mark's
daughter.
beach club with husband
Jay-Z
Anna Ford has taken exception to what
she feels is 'whingeing' by Martin Amis
Anna writes in her open letter: 'You paid scant attention to Claire and didn't even cough
up the statutory five bob expected from godfathers!'
Indeed, such scant attention that when Claire was studying Amis's works at university
and asked her mother if she knew anything about him, Anna had to tell her: 'He's your
godfather.'
He was never Anna's choice. 'I was not that keen on Martin becoming godfather, but
Mark was his friend so I went along with it,' she says.
'I always found that when he was talking to me, Martin looked straight through me. He
simply wasn't interested. I think that applies to other women, too.'
The question raised byAnna's withering scorn, however, is not so much Amis's
behaviour - appalling though it is - but her formidable character.
What is it that puts the fire in her belly where arrogant and thoughtless men are
concerned?
Some believe the answer lies with her father, a philandering vicar who opened her
eyes at an early age to the vanities and weaknesses of men.
Described as 'compelling and powerful', the Reverend John Ford started out as a
Shakespearean actor. Samuel Goldwyn offered him work in Hollywood, but he turned
him down.
Instead, he was ordained as an Anglican priest and took Anna, her four brothers and
her long-suffering mother Jean to live in Eskdale in the Lake District.
According to the historian and biographer A.N. Wilson, an occasional confidant of Anna
in recent years, her father 'was High Church, but had a taste for women - perhaps
unusual in his field - which he indulged freely.
'Anna was very angry with him and then angry with her mother for allowing it and
putting up with it. She thought it was humiliating that her mother stayed with him.
'But her mother was like a lot of women of that generation and submitted completely
to her husband.'
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Anna Ford pictured when she was a journalist on 'Granada Reports' in 1974
Jean had been an actress who had shown promise on stage with Gielgud and Olivier,
but she had given it all up to support her husband.
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And while she became more downtrodden looking after five children, her husband
flourished, making his mark on the community in more ways than one.
The novelist and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg, who grew up down the road and sung in
the church choir, was so impressed with the Rev. John Ford that he based a character
in his novel Son Of War on him.
'At the time, I saw him only from a boy's point of view - as an extremely dramatic,
charismatic and dominant man,' says Bragg.
'But I've heard the stories [about his affairs] since I've been an adult - there was a lot
of "Oh, you know John" and waving of index fingers in the air.'
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It can't have been easy for Anna and her brothers.
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As A. N. Wilson puts it: 'Even if he doesn't commit adultery, clergy children have to
watch their father performing in church week after week like some arch egotist.
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'It makes them sceptical about people with huge egos. They realise they don't have to
play along with their fantasies - they can raise two fingers or throw wine . . .'
Something Anna is rather good at. When she was sacked by TV-am in the early
Eighties, she hit the headlines by throwing a glass of wine over Jonathan Aitken (who
had recently stepped down as chief executive) - and soaking the former Labour
leader Jim Callaghan and a chap from the American Embassy who happened to be
standing behind him.
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and summer skirt
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Anna Ford arrives to attend The Oldie of the Year Awards last year: the veteran
broadcaster has a habit of speaking her mind
And when the late TV inquisitor Sir Robin Day made the mistake of declaring she got
the job as ITN's first female newscaster only because 'all men want to sleep with Anna
Ford', she called him a 'silly old fool' and pushed him into a bush at a garden party.
She has always been able to fight her own battles and is searingly direct. At the BBC,
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her response to office gropers was: 'I don't like that. Don't ever do it again.'
And if she was asked out by someone she found unsuitable,she would say: 'I really
don't think I would enjoy that at all.'
As Wilson says: 'If you're incredibly beautiful, it must be weird and tiresome to have
men drooling over you all the time. It sends you mad or gives you a sharpened
awareness of reality.'
Indeed, her fondness for speaking her mind to 'bureaucratic, bullying, invariably
masculine' BBC bosses earned her the name 'AngryAnna' - as well as the worship
of an army of men, including the wit and columnist Auberon Waugh, who was given to
kissing the TV when she was reading the news.
More recently, she accused Jeremy Paxman of suffering a ' midlife crisis' after he
complained that the BBC discriminated against white, middle-class men.
She also dismissed newsreader Michael Buerk as a 'poor, miserable, old bat' after he
suggested men had become redundant in a female-dominated society.
With all that in mind, it's perhaps not surprising that Martin Amis, who earlier this
month said it would take women a century to become the equal of men, was next in
the firing line.
It didn't help that he had also claimed women had 'almost too many powers for the
harmony of their own lives . . . they've got jobs, they do most of the children's stuff, and
they now do most of the administration at home'.
As Anna puts it: 'As a feminist, I don't enjoy reading him; he may be one of our most
distinguished writers, but I think his attitude to women is highly questionable.'
Amis, who is happily married to his second wife Isabel Fonseca, an American writer
and heiress, has a record of treating women shabbily.
He's accumulated a long list of lovers and mistresses over the years. In the Seventies,
he cheated on biographer Julie Kavanagh (who last year described him as an
inveterate womaniser) with her best friend Emma Soames.
He has been publicly accused by several lovers of 'behaving appallingly' and he
walked out on his first wife, the American philosopher Antonia Phillips, for her best
friend - Isabel, who he went on to marry.
While Amis protests that he is a feminist who shares household tasks, Anna is having
none of it.
'He treats women like his inferiors,' she says. 'He is such a curmudgeon and is
changing into the same man his father Kingsley was. I really don't think he is able to
relate to people properly or understands their feelings. It's all about how he sees
things.'
While some may think Anna's attack on Amis was the result of lingering bitterness,
A.N. Wilson believes the opposite.
'Anna got angry about her father's behaviour at one stage, but when we last spoke she
told me she'd worked it through,' he says.
'The fact she's rubbing Martin's nose in his appalling behaviour doesn't mean she's
eaten up with malice. It's instinctive for her - he was sticking his neck out and she
couldn't resist chucking a glass of wine over it.
'She's ridiculously truthful, which must feel wonderfully liberating. Most of us wouldn't
dare.
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baby boy
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in new ad for Moscow
department store
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shows off her slim postbaby figure in a bikini
The Real Housewives of
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'She's not a man-hater; she just rates men accurately. She realises how hopeless
most of us are and isn't afraid to point it out.'
Something no doubt Martin Amis will be rather regretting this week.
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Comments (26)
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not debate this issue live on our
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Is Martin from another planet? Think about it
- Marian, NEW ZEALAND, 23/2/2010 14:30
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Rating
4
When your husband dies prematurely you hope those who loved him will step into
the void to help your children ,as the whole experience is so brutal and you are
shredded emotionally. Anna Ford and her children were dismissd by Martin Amis. It
shows him to be a narcissist and his love for his friend Mark Boxer doubtful.When
John Merritt the journalist died for all his failings Alistair Campbell was there for his
wife and daughter and has worked hard for leukaemia causes an example of true
friendship. Amis has kicked her when she was on the floor and sadly he doesnt see
it.Blind stupid man.
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- mpc, london, 23/2/2010 11:21
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7
To answer the question in the article title: No, it's not daddy issues. When you are
smart and perceptive and have a father like that, the childlike idolization of your
father goes out the window. It does not mean she doesn't love her father, she just
sees him for what he was and calls him out on his BS. I loved my father, and he
wasn't perfect and not once, ever in my life, I idolized him the way children idolize
their father but I loved him for who he was and I didn't expect him to change and turn
into a loving faithful husband. He was great to me but not my mother and I made it
very clear to him that one didn't compensate the other!
- Jo, Orange County, United States,
22/2/2010 23:21
Report abuse
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Rating
3
Anna you are so absolutely right. YOu are a clever and intelligent woman and many
men don't deal very well with that. Thanks for telling it like it is about a lot of issues.
Martin Amis and his writings were elevated way beyond his writing skill and abilities.
He is a sexist, aging drip who was feted by all the literary crews and consequently
took his thoughts and opinions as fact. He wants everyone around him to believe
his ramblings.
- Michaela, south africa, 22/2/2010 15:29
Report abuse
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Rating
36
Disappointed in Femail. Can't you see the hypocrisy of having Janet Street-Porter
asking 'Why are male bullies called strong... and women crazy?' then having Jane
Fryer assigning Anna Ford's strength (and accuracy) of opinion to unresolved daddy
issues. Come on, she's just an exceptionally bright, perceptive woman who isn't
afraid to speak her mind. Don't devalue her opinion by making it about her feeling
let down by her father.
- Hannah, UK, 22/2/2010 15:25
Report abuse
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Rating
47
Well whilst we are in telling it like it is mode, I can only remember this woman as an
inconsequential newsreader who had fits off huff over men she could never better.
And who is now a non executive director for Sainsburys for reasons best known only
to them.
- mai, aldershot England, 22/2/2010 15:23
Report abuse
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36
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