The first instalment of his famed autobiography, Unreliable Memoirs is a hilarious and touching introduction to the life of the author, broadcaster, critic and poet, Clive James.'It is one of the most tender, frank and, above all, funny accounts of growing up I have ever read' -Michael ParkinsonIn the first instalment of James's memoirs we follow the young Clive on his journey from boyhood to the cusp of manhood, when his days of wearing short trousers are finally behind him. Battling with school, girls, various relatives, the local wildlife, and an overwhelming desire to be a superhero, Clive's adventures growing up in the suburbs of post-war Sydney are a hair-raising and uproarious evocation of a lost world. I was born in 1939. The other big event of that year was the outbreak of the Second World War, but for the moment that did not affect me .

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Following Visions Before Midnight, The Crystal Bucket is another hilarious time-capsule of 1970s television - the second collection of Clive James's ruthlessly funny, inimitable columns dissecting the entertainment of the day.'One of the few columnists who makes you laugh aloud' - Melvyn Bragg, Sunday TimesIn many ways, the 1970s were a dark time for Britain - a time of struggle, deepening divisions and Christmas with the Osmonds. Clive James, the man who made TV criticism an entertainment in its own right, provided the relief. By turns insightful and hilarious, this collection sees his lens turn to television as diverse as the election of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party, the Silver Jubilee, endless Star Trek reruns, the Frost/Nixon interviews and Charlie's Angels.'He is one of the most remarkable figures in British cultural life at the moment: a poet and gifted literary critic who is also genuinely liked by the mass audience' - London Review of BooksThe Crystal Bucket collects James's TV criticism published originally in the Observer between 1976 and 1979. Clive's TV criticism from 1979 onwards continues in Glued To The Box. Clive James (1939-2019) was a broadcaster, critic, poet, memoirist and novelist. His much-loved, influential and hilarious television criticism is available both in individual volumes, of which this is the second, and collected in a single volume in Clive James On Television. Praise for Clive James:'There can't be many writers of my generation who haven't been heavily influenced by Clive James' - Charlie Brooker'A wonderfully witty and intelligent writer' - Verity Lambert'The perfect critic' - A. O. Scott, New York Times

The Crystal Bucket

Taking the very best, funniest and most heartfelt of his work from 1958-2003, The Book of My Enemy is the second volume of collected poems from much-loved poet, broadcaster and author of Unreliable Memoirs, Clive James. 'He rejoices in language, and he shows enormous skill in using it' - Sunday TelegraphThe poetry of Clive James achieved immediate notoriety on the publication of this volume's title poem: 'The Book of My Enemy Has Been Remaindered'. Hilarious and self-satirizing, it became one of the most anthologized poems of recent times. After its publication, James emerged unarguably as one of the most prominent poets of his generation - and The Book of My Enemy shows why. With its broad thematic scope and dazzling technical accomplishment, this collection is one to treasure.'If you are vacillating over whether a couple of bottles of pinot blanc might, in the short run, prove more fun than a poetry book, then just flick to the first page and the title poem of this volume' - The TimesThe Book of My Enemy features a selection of poetry written by James from 1958-2003, and includes within it his previous collection Other Passports. Clive James (1939-2019) was a broadcaster, critic, poet, memoirist and novelist. His acclaimed poetry includes the collection Sentenced to Life and a translation of Dante's The Divine Comedy, both Sunday Times bestsellers. His passion for and knowledge of poetry are distilled in his book of criticism on the subject, Poetry Notebook, and, written in the last year of his life, his personal annotated anthology of favourite poems, The Fire Of Joy. Praise for Clive James:'He will be seen, I think, as one of the most important and influential writers of our time' - Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times'Wise, witty, terrifying, unflinching and extraordinarily alive' - A. S. Byatt, critic and author of Possession: A Romance'Clive James is a true poet' - Peter Porter, London Review of Books

The Book of My Enemy - Collected Verse 1958-2003

Wide-ranging, hilarious and enlightening, The Revolt of the Pendulum collects the best of Clive James on art, culture and politics from 2005-2008, showing the author, broadcaster and poet at his dazzling and versatile best. From the rules of grammar to the fundamentals of religion, from the culture of fandom to the cult of the critic, it's all there in this collection of essays - steeped in Clive's vast learning, his sane intelligence, and his wit. Whether discussing Kingsley Amis, Camille Paglia, Leni Riefenstahl or Formula 1, Clive is able to focus on the finer points and the bigger picture simultaneously - generating insight across a huge range of subject matter.'There's only one Clive James' - Sam Leith, SpectatorClive James (1939-2019) was a broadcaster, critic, poet, memoirist and novelist. His much-loved, influential and hilarious television criticism is available both in individual volumes and collected in Clive James On Television. His encyclopaedic study of culture and politics in the twentieth century, Cultural Amnesia, remains perhaps the definitive embodiment of his wide-ranging talents as a critic. Praise for Clive James:'The perfect critic' - A. O. Scott, New York Times'There can't be many writers of my generation who haven't been heavily influenced by Clive James' - Charlie Brooker 'A wonderfully witty and intelligent writer' - Verity Lambert

The Revolt of the Pendulum - Essays 2005-2008

Travel writing at its humorous best, Flying Visits collects the Postcards of Clive James originally written for the Observer between 1976 and 1983 - full of his distinctive wit and satire. Whether enduring Australian television, exploring the mystifying Soviet Union, watching sumo training in Japan, or enjoying Sondheim via serial killers in New York, James is never less than thoroughly entertaining. As a time-capsule of the period or as a humorous journey across the globe, this is an enduring collection for the well - and not so well - travelled.'He writes with such wisecracking intelligence that you're happy to be taken around by him - whether to Japan, Los Angeles, or Sydney' - GuardianClive James (1939-2019) was a broadcaster, critic, poet, memoirist and novelist. His much-loved, influential and hilarious television criticism is available both in individual volumes and collected in Clive James On Television. His encyclopaedic study of culture and politics in the twentieth century, Cultural Amnesia, remains perhaps the definitive embodiment of his wide-ranging talents as a critic. Praise for Clive James: 'The perfect critic' - A. O. Scott, New York Times'There can't be many writers of my generation who haven't been heavily influenced by Clive James' - Charlie Brooker'A wonderfully witty and intelligent writer' - Verity Lambert

Flying Visits - Postcards From  The Observer  1976-83

A single book-length poem, The River in the Sky sees Clive James face up to his final moments of life with all the wisdom, lightly-worn erudition and good humour that defined his extraordinary career. Close to death for a number of years, Clive James wrote about the experience in a series of deeply moving poems. In this volume, we find him in ill health but high spirits. Though his body found him bound to his Cambridge home, his mind was free to roam. On a grand tour of 'the fragile treasures of his life', James is animated by powerful recollections. He presents a flowing stream of vivid images, moving from emotionally resonant personal moments, such as listening to jazz records with his future wife, to unforgettable encounters with all kinds of culture: Beethoven's Ninth Symphony sits alongside 'YouTube's vast cosmopolis'. James shares his passions with enormous generosity, making brilliant, original connections and fearlessly tackling the biggest questions: the meaning of life and how to live it. In the end, what emerges from this autobiographical epic is a soaring work of exceptional depth and feeling.'The River in the Sky is superb, an epic lament, written in late life, filled with exact and moving observations about life and culture' - New York TimesClive James (1939-2019) was a broadcaster, critic, poet, memoirist and novelist. His acclaimed poetry includes the collection Sentenced to Life and a translation of Dante's The Divine Comedy, both Sunday Times bestsellers. His passion for and knowledge of poetry are distilled in his book of criticism on the subject, Poetry Notebook, and, written in the last year of his life, his personal annotated anthology of favourite poems, The Fire Of Joy. Praise for Clive James:'He will be seen, I think, as one of the most important and influential writers of our time' - Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times'Wise, witty, terrifying, unflinching and extraordinarily alive' - A. S. Byatt, critic and author of Possession: A Romance'Clive James is a true poet' - Peter Porter, London Review of Books

The River in the Sky

Blending the critical essay with poetry, Gate of Lilacs is a collection of verse written by Clive James in response to - and profoundly inspired by - the work of Marcel Proust.'James picks out the characters, the motifs and the moments that set his memory ablaze, just as Marcel was able to conjure such visions from a tisane-infused madeleine' - Literary ReviewOver a period of fifteen years Clive James learned French by almost no other method than reading À la recherche du temps perdu - commonly translated as In Search of Lost Time, or Remembrance of Things Past. Then he spent half a century trying to get up to speed with Proust's great novel in two different languages. Gate of Lilacs is the unique product of James's love of and engagement with Proust's masterpiece. With À la recherche du temps perdu, Proust, in James's words, 'followed his creative instinct all the way until his breath gave out', and now James has done the same. In Gate of Lilacs, James, a brilliant critical essayist and poet, has blended the two forms into one. I had always thought the critical essay and the poem were closely related forms .

Gate of Lilacs - A Verse Commentary on Proust

Erudite and entertaining in equal measure, Somewhere Becoming Rain is a love letter from the much-loved writer Clive James to one of the world's most cherished poets: Philip Larkin.'This is the finest critic of his generation on the best poet of his lifetime' - The TimesClive James was a life-long admirer of the work of Philip Larkin. Somewhere Becoming Rain gathers all of James's writing on this towering literary figure of the twentieth century, together with extra material now published for the first time. The greatness of Larkin's poetry continues to be obscured by the opprobrium attaching to his personal life and his private opinions. James writes about Larkin's poems, his novels, his jazz and literary criticism; he also considers the two major biographies, Larkin's letters and even his portrayal on stage in order to chart the extreme and, he argues, largely misguided equivocations about Larkin's reputation in the years since his death. Through this joyous and perceptive book, Larkin's genius is delineated and celebrated. James argues that Larkin's poems, adored by discriminating readers for over half a century, could only have been the product of his reticent, diffident, flawed, and all-too-human personality.'A collection to savour two-fold - for the genius of Larkin and the playful erudition of James' - Financial Times

Somewhere Becoming Rain - Collected Writings on Philip Larkin

His second book of cultural criticism, At the Pillars of Hercules sees Clive James take on artists from W. H. Auden to Lillian Hellman, and from T. S. Eliot to Norman Mailer, in a collection that confirmed his reputation as a writer of entertaining, insightful essays. Named for a now much-missed Soho pub that was long the regular haunt of literary Londoners, this collection sees James discuss contemporary poetry, aesthetics and the theory and practice of criticism, the popular novel, and the literature of modern history and politics. It is a fascinating time capsule of the literary 1970s, as well as an illuminating and wide-ranging work of cultural criticism. Clive James's inimitable wit and candour are ever present in this collection, featuring a previously unpublished introduction. Clive James (1939-2019) was a broadcaster, critic, poet, memoirist and novelist. His much-loved, influential and hilarious television criticism is available both in individual volumes and collected in Clive James On Television. His encyclopaedic study of culture and politics in the twentieth century, Cultural Amnesia, remains perhaps the definitive embodiment of his wide-ranging talents as a critic. Praise for Clive James: 'The perfect critic' - A. O. Scott, New York Times'There can't be many writers of my generation who haven't been heavily influenced by Clive James' - Charlie Brooker 'A wonderfully witty and intelligent writer' - Verity Lambert

Unreliable Memoirs - Picador Classic

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