Martin Amis

Martin Amis Experience 2000 Hyperion

Don't know what took me so long to find this guy. Started with House of Meetings, which led to Koba the Dread. Now, from Experience (pg 237):

...Princess Diana used to claim that her favourite poem was 'Ye Wearie Wayfarer' by Adam Lindsay Gordon, four lines of harmonial Victorian rubbish that go as follows:

Life is mostly froth and bubble,
Two things stand like stone.
Kindness in another's trouble,
C0urage in your own.

For fun, Kingsley had recently rewritten 'Ye Wearie Wayfarer', imbueing it with something of the spirit of the times:

Life is mainly grief and labour.
Two things get you through.
Chortling when it hits your neighbour
Whingeing when it's you.