Martin Amis: UK 'obsessed with trivialities'

Our culture is obsessed with "vulgarities and trivialities", author Martin Amis has told the Today programme.

There is an "insane interest in people who are famous for no other reason than they're famous," he said in an interview with James Naughtie.

Reflecting on the aging process, the Lionel Asbo author said "your youth evaporates in your mid-40s" but when you turn 60 "you think, now this can't turn out well".

"Life begins to look as precious again as it did when you were a child."