Clive James
Overview
 
Clive James, AM
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...

 (born 7 October 1939) is an Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet and memoirist, best known for his autobiographical series Unreliable Memoirs, for his chat shows and documentaries on British television and for his prolific journalism. He has lived and worked in the United Kingdom since the early 1960s.
Clive James was born Vivian James in Kogarah, Sydney.
Quotations

I think the control I had over my work was less than adequate. There was nothing wrong with the good bits in my poems, it’s just that they were packed around with lots and lots of bad bits, and I think that the only way I’ve improved in the last several decades [. . .] is that I’ve learned to leave out the bad bits. I’m not sure you do improve beyond that.

from a conversartion with Peter Porter broadcast on ABC Radio, Australia in the program 'Book Talk' on Saturday 15 October 2005

On W. H. Auden ...

:His later manner leaves your neck-hair flat,

:Not standing up as A. E. Housman|Housman said it should

:When poetry has been achieved. For that,

:In old age Auden simply grew too good.

from the poem 'What Happened to Auden'

The controls fell easily to hand, and from there onto the floor.

On the Trabant. From Clive James' Postcard from Berlin. Reprints of selected television reveiws from The Observer, published by Jonathan Cape in 1977.

Every week I watch Stuart Hall on It's A Knock-Out and realise with renewed despair that the most foolish thing I ever did was to turn in my double-0 licence and hand back that Walther PPK with the short silencer.

'Edie Waring Communicates' Reprints of selected television reviews from The Observer|The Observer 1979 to 1982.

Shaw said that three years as a theatre critic was the maximum before insanity set in - the implication being that anyone who lasted longer than that was too dull to be unbalanced by his nightly ordeal.

Page 30.

Give or take the odd anatomical discrepancy, John Berger affects me exactly like Jane Fonda - ie. any opinion of mine which I discover he shares I immediately examine to find out what's wrong with it.

Page 64.

 
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