A backward glance ...

... Money spinner: Martin Amis and his hip coterie of young British novelists were at the heart of the 80s fiction boom. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

A somewhat misleading headline, since the article is about a good deal more than Amis & Co.

Giants still walked the earth of course. Iris Murdoch's finest novel, The Sea, the Sea, was behind her, but The Book and the Brotherhood and The Good Apprentice were as compellingly readable as ever; Amis père still commanded respect; and William Golding and Anthony Burgess famously went head-to-head for the 1980 Booker Prize, the latter refusing to leave his room at the Savoy unless he was told he'd definitely won. He could be excused his tantrum when Golding carried the prize; if you can't win the Booker with a novel as stupendous as Earthly Powers, you might as well give up.