Martin Amis and Katie Price: a strange infatuation

Novelist Martin Amis revealed a surprising influence on his new novella, State of England, when he spoke at the Hay Festival in London this week. He confessed that none other than Katie Price - aka the glamour model Jordan - had inspired his creation of the character, Threnody. While the character was not "based on" Miss Price, readers should "bear in mind" her larger-than-life figure while reading the book, he said.

Price has undoubtedly exerted a hold over the novelist. According to the Evening Standard, Amis not only talked of nothing else throughout the Hay event, he even recited parts of the poem that Price's former husband Peter Andre had read out to Jordan at their wedding ceremony, which he appeared to know off by heart.

Yet Amis seemed appalled and intrigued by her in equal measure. "She has no waist... an interesting face... but all we are really worshipping is two bags of silicone."

This damning indictment of Jordan's surgically-enhanced appeal might seem a bit rich coming from a man who is noted for the expensive cosmetic work he undergone himself himself - to his teeth. It also does little to explain why he should have read not just one, but both volumes of her autobiography, as well as following her exploits in the tabloids.

The answer, of course, is that Amis wants to know how on earth a glamour model, using a ghost-writer, can outsell the entire Booker shortlist with just one of her romance novels. 

He will be glad to hear - or perhaps disappointed? - that high street bookstores are beginning to tire of the Katie Price phenomenon. Blackwell’s have refused to stock the upcoming volume of biography, in which she will tell her side of the headline-grabbing divorce from Peter Andre, unless local managers put in a specific request. "This is not a book we would say to our readers, 'You must buy',"  said a spokesman.

Waterstone's said they would offer the book only "if we thought it was the right thing to do". ·