Background
She was born Mavis Mainwaring and spent her childhood in Briton Ferry.
She was born Mavis Mainwaring and spent her childhood in Briton Ferry.
She became a student at Swansea University. There in 1949 she met the writer and journalist, Geoffrey Nicholson, whom she married in 1952, and with whom she had three sons. Amis did not always approve of their views and claimed to have invented the word "lefties" during one little set-to with them.
While it was true that the Nicholsons didn"t have dinner parties as such - they invited people for an argument and threw some food in - they were by no means belligerent but had in abundance the Welsh love of debate."
Her first presenting job was on the 1972 show "Good Afternoon", after which her television career spanned the next 25 years.
She then presented British television programmes such as Afternoon, Afternoon Plus and Mavis On Four from the 1970s to 1990s, on which she interviewed celebrities of the stature of Elizabeth Taylor, David Bowie, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Her last work for television was Oldie television in 1997, a television version of The Oldie magazine.
She still writes for The Oldie, and is currently its resident agony aunt. She has also presented several radio shows, including a history of the department store and a look back at her childhood.
She is the author of the 1992 book Martha Jane & Maine: A Girlhood In Wales.