The author died of oesophageal cancer on Friday at his home in Lake Worth, Florida, his wife the writer Isabel Fonseca said.

It was the same disease that killed his close friend, the journalist Christopher Hitchens.

Amis published 15 novels and is best known for his books Money: A Suicide Note and London Fields.

"We are devastated at the death of our author and friend, Martin Amis: novelist, essayist, memoirist, critic, stylist supreme," his publisher Vintage Books said.

"For 40 years Martin Amis bestrode the world of UK publishing: first by defining what it meant to be a literary wunderkind by releasing his first novel at just 24; influencing a generation of prose stylists; and often summing up entire eras with his books, perhaps most notably with his classic novel, Money.

"He continually engaged with current events and the contemporary world, never afraid to tackle the biggest issues and questions of the day, in books including The Second Plane and his essay collection, The Rub of Time.

"At the same time his work often explored key periods in history, notably the Holocaust, which he wrote about uniquely and powerfully in novels such as Time's Arrow and The Zone of Interest.

"Throughout it all, his love of literature shone fiercely: Experience, The War Against Cliche and others all brought a light up to the world he'd inhabited his entire life."

Amis was the son of the well-known novelist Kingsley Amis, who came to fame with his book Lucky Jim and died in 1995.

The Booker Prize tweeted: "We are saddened to hear that Martin Amis, one of the most acclaimed and discussed novelists of the past 50 years, has died.

"Our thoughts are with his family and friends."

Amis was twice listed for the Booker Prize for his novels Time's Arrow and Yellow Dog. His memoir Experience was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

The author was born on 25 August 1949 in Oxford. He read nothing but comic books until his stepmother, the novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard, introduced him to Jane Austen, who he often cited as his earliest influence.

He studied English at Exeter College, Oxford, and graduated in 1971 with a congratulatory first.

Amis was part of a group of writers including Hitchens, Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan and Julian Barnes.

He is survived by his wife, Ms Fonseca, three daughters, Delilah Jeary, Fernanda Amis and Clio Amis, and two sons, Louis and Jacob Amis, as well as four grandchildren and his brother.