Elephants play football during the annual Surin Elephant Roundup in Thailand, November 2009. The festival, which began in 1960, features some 250 elephants that participate in a giant parade and activities such as football and tug-of-war

Martin Amis on Coetzee: he’s got no talent

In an exclusive interview for Prospect, to be published on our website on 1st February, Martin Amis discusses his new novel with our arts and books editor Tom Chatfield—and his impatience with just how miserable much of the most acclaimed modern fiction is. Among other things, Amis pours scorn on the popular assumption that “it’s the gloomy buggers that are the serious ones” when it comes to writing novels. “Coetzee, for instance—his whole style is predicated on transmitting absolutely no pleasure,” he explained. “I read one and I thought, he’s got no talent. But the denial of the pleasure principle has got a lot of