Bill Nighy leads tributes to Sir Martin Amis by reading passages from the author’s work at memorial service also attended by Vogue editor Anna Wintour, Pink Floyd star David Gilmour and chef Nigella Lawson

Actor Bill Nighy pay tribute to the late author Sir Martin Amis by reading passages from his work at a star-studded memorial service.

Celebrities gathered to pay their respects at a service for the author on Monday, including Vogue’s editor Anna Wintourjournalist Rachel Johnson, celebrity chef Nigella Lawson And Pink Floyd frontman David Gilmour.

Nighy is an enthusiast of Sir Martin’s writing and gave readings from his works at the service at St Martin-in-the-Fields in London.

Sir Martin, one of the most important British authors of the second half of the 20th century, died in 2023 at the age of 73 and was posthumously knighted for his services to literature.

Bill Nighy is an enthusiast of Sir Martin’s writing and will give readings from his works at the service at St Martin-in-the-Fields

Rachel Johnson Martin Amis Memorial Service, St Martin-in-the-Fields Church, Trafalgar Square

The memorial service of Pink Floyd singer David Gilmour and Polly Samson Martin Amis on June 10

Vogue editor Anna Wintour pictured today at the star-studded memorial service for the beloved author

Besides his children was his widow, novelist Isabel Fonesca. Other people who attended the service include fellow writers Ian McEwan and James Fenton, The Telegraph reported.

Novelist Zadie Smith also contributed to the service, as did journalist Tina Brown, with whom Sir Martin had a romantic relationship during his time at Oxford.

Sir Salman Rushdiea friend and fellow novelist, was not present but provided a written tribute.

He said: ‘Only Martin sounded like Martin Amis, and it was unwise to try to imitate him.

Nigella Lawson pictured in a black suit and sunglasses while attending the memorial

Sir Martin’s widow and fellow novelist Isabel Fonseca imagined arriving at her late husband’s memorial service

Fellow writers Ian McEwan and his wife, children’s author Annalena McAfee, arrive for the service

British social commentator and founder of the Free Speech Union Toby Young saw it coming

Novelist Zadie Smith pictured wearing black as she attends the service for Sir Martin Amis

“He always said he wanted to leave a shelf of books, to be able to say, ‘From here to here, it’s me.’

“His voice is quiet now. His friends will miss him terribly. But at least we have the plank.”

Sir Martin died of oesophagitis cancer Friday at his home Floridathe same disease that claimed his best friend and fellow writer Christopher Hitchens in 2011.

He published 15 novels, including The Rachel Papers in 1973 and his acclaimed memoir Experience, published in 2000.

In his later work he examined Stalin’s atrocities, the war on terror and the legacy of the Holocaust.

He once said of his work: ‘What I’ve tried to do is create a high style to describe low things: the whole world of fast food, sex shows, nude magazines.’

Former BBC creative director Alan Yentob was seen arriving for the memorial service in London

The Japanese-British novelist and screenwriter arrives for the memorial service

Sir Martin Amis (photo) published fifteen novels during his career, which gained fame in the 1980s and 1990s

Sir Salman Rushdie, a friend and fellow novelist, was not present but provided a written tribute. (Martin Amis pictured at the 1996 British Book Awards with his second wife Isabel Fonseca and writer Salman Rushdie)

He never won the Booker Prize, but was shortlisted for Time’s Arrow in 1991 and longlisted for Yellow Dog in 2003.

His last novel, Inside Story, published in 2020, was a “novelized autobiography” that explored his friendship with Hitchens and his relationship with his father, the novelist Kingsley Amis.

Mr Amis said having a famous writer for a father was a blessing and a curse, but acknowledged he would have been in a “very different position” if his father had been a teacher.

Although a close friend of Christopher Hitchens, Mr. Amis said in 2006 that “agnostic is the only respectable position simply because our ignorance of the universe is so great” that atheism is “premature.”