Clive James AMThe Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia on 14 February 1975 "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"....
(born
Vivian James, on 7 October 1939 in
Kogarah, New South WalesKogarah is a suburb of southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Kogarah is located 14 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is considered to be the centre of the St George area...
) is an
expatriateAn expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing or legal residence...
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
n
authorAn author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created...
,
poetA poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
,
criticThe word critic comes from the Greek , "able to discern", which in turn derives from the word , meaning a person who offers reasoned judgment or analysis, value judgment, interpretation, or observation...
, memoirist, talk show host, television presenter, travel writer and cultural commentator.
Biography
James was born in
SydneySydney is the largest city in Australia, and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney has a metropolitan area population of approximately 4.34 million and an area of approximately 12,000 square kilometres. Its inhabitants are called Sydneysiders, and Sydney is often called "the Harbour City"...
,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
. He was allowed to change his name as a child because "after
Vivien LeighVivien Leigh, Lady Olivier was an English actress. She won two Best Actress Academy Awards for playing "southern belles": Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind and Blanche DuBois in the film version of A Streetcar Named Desire , a role she had also played on stage in London's West End.She was a...
played
Scarlett O'HaraScarlett O'Hara is the protagonist in Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind and in the later film of the same name...
the name became irrevocably a girl's name no matter how you spelled it".
His father was taken prisoner by the
JapaneseThe Empire of Japan was a Japanese political entity that existed during the period from the...
during the Second World War, and although he survived the POW camp, he died when the
planeA fixed-wing aircraft, usually called an airplane, aeroplane or plane, is an aircraft capable of flight using forward motion that causes air to pass over its wings to generate lift. Planes include jet engine and propeller driven vehicles propelled forward by thrust, as well as unpowered aircraft...
returning him to
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
crashed in
TaiwanTaiwan , also known as Formosa , is the largest island of the Republic of China in East Asia. Taiwan is located east of the Taiwan Strait, off the southeastern coast of mainland China...
, and he was buried in Hong Kong. James, who was an only child, was brought up by his mother in the
SydneySydney is the largest city in Australia, and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney has a metropolitan area population of approximately 4.34 million and an area of approximately 12,000 square kilometres. Its inhabitants are called Sydneysiders, and Sydney is often called "the Harbour City"...
suburbSuburbs are defined in various different ways around the world. They can be the residential areas of a large city, or separate residential communities within commuting distance of a city. Some suburbs have a degree of political autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city...
of
KogarahKogarah is a suburb of southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Kogarah is located 14 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is considered to be the centre of the St George area...
.
An
IQ testThe development of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales initiated the modern field of intelligence testing. The Stanford-Binet test started with the French psychologist Alfred Binet, whom the French government commissioned with developing a method of identifying intellectually deficient children...
taken in childhood put his IQ at 140. He was educated at
Sydney Technical High SchoolSydney Technical High School is an academically selective, public, high school for boys, located in Bexley, a southern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1911 as part of Sydney Technical College, the school was one of the six original New South Wales selective schools...
(despite winning a bursary to
Sydney Boys High SchoolSydney Boys High School is an academically selective secondary school for boys, located in the City of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, with 1,140 students, from years 7 to 12...
) and the
University of SydneyThe University of Sydney is the oldest university in Australia. It was established in Sydney in 1850. It is a member of Australia's "Group of Eight" universities that are highly ranked in terms of their research performance...
, where he studied
psychologyPsychology is an academic and applied discipline involving the systematic, and sometimes scientific, study of human or animal mental functions and behavior...
and became associated with the
Sydney PushThe Sydney Push was a predominantly left-wing intellectual sub-culture in Sydney from the late 1940s to the early '70s. Well known associates of The Push include John Flaus, Harry Hooton, Margaret Fink, Sasha Soldatow, Lex Banning, Eva Cox, Peter Hamilton, Paddy McGuinness, David Makinson, Germaine...
, a libertarian,
intellectualAn intellectual is a person who uses his or her intelligence and analytical thinking, either in a professional or a personal capacity.-Terminology and endeavours:...
sub-culture. At the
universityA university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
he edited the student newspaper
Honi SoitHoni Soit is the student newspaper of the University of Sydney, first published in 1929 and produced by an elected editorial team as part of the activities of the Students' Representative Council . The name is short for the phrase "Honi soit qui mal y pense" , the motto of the British Order of the...
and directed the annual Union Revue. After graduating, James worked for a year as an assistant editor for
The Sydney Morning HeraldThe Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. The newspaper's Sunday edition, The Sun-Herald, is published in tabloid format...
.
In early 1962, James moved to
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, where he has now made his home. During his first three years spent in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
he shared a flat with the Australian
film directorA film director, or filmmaker is a person who directs the making or production of a film. Some also consider a film producer to be a filmmaker....
Bruce BeresfordBruce Beresford is an Australian film director, writer, and producer of such films as Breaker Morant, Tender Mercies and Driving Miss Daisy.-Career:...
(disguised as Dave Dalziel in the first three volumes of James' memoirs), was a neighbour of Australian
artistThe definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. the worlds best artist is a man named mitchell peter lay who is often loved by the ladies. The common useage in both everyday speech and...
Brett WhiteleyBrett Whiteley, AO was an Australian artist. One of the best-known Australian painters of the 20th century, he is collected in most Australian galleries...
, became acquainted with
Barry HumphriesJohn Barry Humphries, AO, CBE is an Australian comedian, satirist, dadaist, artist and character actor perhaps best known for his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage, a Melbourne housewife and "gigastar", and Sir Les Patterson, Australia's foul-mouthed cultural attaché to the...
, and had a variety of occasionally disastrous short term jobs (sheet metal worker, library assistant, photo archivist, market researcher).
After this, he was able to gain a place at
Pembroke College, CambridgePembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college has over six hundred students and fellows, and is the third-oldest college of the university. Physically, it is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from almost every century since its...
to read
English literatureEnglish literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; Joseph Conrad was born in Poland, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, V.S....
. Whilst there he contributed to all the undergraduate periodicals, was a member, and later the President of the Cambridge Footlights, and also appeared on
University ChallengeUniversity Challenge is a British quiz programme that has aired since 1962. The format is based on the American show College Bowl, which ran on NBC radio from 1953 to 1957, and on NBC TV from 1959 to 1970. University Challenge aired for 913 episodes on ITV from 1962 to 1987, before being cancelled...
as captain of the Pembroke team. During one of the summer vacations, he worked as a circus roustabout in order to save enough money to travel to Italy. His contemporaries at Cambridge included
Germaine GreerGermaine Greer is an Australian-born writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century....
(known as Romaine Rand in the first three volumes of his memoirs) and
Eric IdleEric Idle is an English comedian, actor, author, singer, writer and composer of comic songs. He wrote and performed as a member of the British comedy group Monty Python.-Early life:...
. Having, he claims, scrupulously avoided reading any of the course material (but having read widely otherwise in English and foreign literature), James graduated with a 2:1—better than he had expected—and began a
PhDPHD may refer to:* Parisada Hindu Dharma, an Indonesian reform organization* PHD, a track on The Crystal Method album Tweekend* PHD finger, a protein sequence* PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company...
on
Percy Bysshe ShelleyPercy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded among the finest lyric poets in the English language...
.
Personal life
James is married to Prue Shaw, an academic in modern languages specialising in
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, and by a total of around 70 million in the world. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four official languages. It is also the official language of San Marino, as well as the primary language of Vatican City...
and medieval romance philology. The couple have two daughters,
ClaerwenClaerwen James is a British painter, the daughter of the writer Clive James and the scholar Prue Shaw.She studied zoology at Oxford, and then travelled to Madagascar to study lemurs. She then conducted molecular biology research in programmed cell death, including the genetic manipulation of...
, a noted
painterPainting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . In art, the term describes both the act and the result, which is called a painting. Paintings may have for their support such surfaces as walls, paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer, clay or concrete...
, and Lucinda, a civil servant. James divides his time between a converted warehouse flat in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
and a house in
CambridgeThe city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. It is also at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen....
. James generally maintains a strict policy of not talking about his family publicly.
A friend of
Diana, Princess of WalesDiana, Princess of Wales, was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales. Their sons, Princes William and Harry, are second and third in line to the thrones of the United Kingdom and fifteen other Commonwealth Realms.A public figure from the announcement of her engagement to Prince Charles, Diana...
, upon her death James wrote a piece for
The New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry published by Condé Nast Publications...
entitled "I Wish I'd Never Met Her", recording his overbearing grief. Since then he has declined to comment upon their friendship.
While a detractor of
communismCommunism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general. Karl Marx posited that communism would be the final stage in human...
and
socialismSocialism refers to various theories of economic organization advocating public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with a method of compensation based on...
for their tendency towards
totalitarianismTotalitarianism is a political system where the state, usually under the control of a single party or faction, recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
, James still identifies himself with the
LeftLeft may refer to:* Left * Left , an album by Hope of the States* Left-wing politics, the political trend or ideology← may refer to:...
, accepting socialism's
planned economyA planned economy or directed economy is an economic system in which the state or workers' councils manage the economy. It is an economic system in which the central government makes all decisions on the production and consumption of goods and services...
and state-owned media and eschewing the
free marketA free market describes a market without economic intervention and regulation by government except to regulate against force or fraud. The terminology is used by economists and in popular culture. A free market requires protection of property rights, but no regulation, no subsidization, no single...
and privatisation of
capitalismCapitalism is an economic and social system in which the means of production are privately controlled; labor, goods and capital are traded in a market; profits are distributed to owners or invested in technologies and industries; and wages are paid to labor...
. In a 2006 interview in
The Sunday Times, James states of himself: "I was brought up on the proletarian left, and I remain there. The fair go for the workers is fundamental, and I don't believe the free market has a mind".
In a speech given in 1991, he criticises privatisation: "The idea that Britain's broadcasting system—for all its drawbacks one of the country's greatest institutions—was bound to be improved by being subjected to the conditions of a free market: there was no difficulty in recognising that notion as politically illiterate. But for some reason people did have difficulty in realising that it was economically illiterate too".
Ultimately he identifies himself as a
liberalLiberalism is the belief in the importance of individual freedom. This belief is widely accepted today throughout the world, and was recognized as an important value by many philosophers throughout history...
social democrat. He strongly supported the
2003 invasion of IraqThe 2003 invasion of Iraq, was led by the United States, backed by British forces and smaller contingents from Australia, Denmark, Poland and Spain. Four countries participated with troops during the initial invasion phase, which lasted from March 20 to May 1...
, claiming in 2007 that "the war only lasted a few days" (in fact the invasion took six weeks) and that the ongoing
Iraq WarThe Iraq War, also known as the Occupation of Iraq or Operation Iraqi Freedom, is an ongoing military campaign which began on March 20, 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by a multinational force led by troops from the United States and the United Kingdom.Prior to the war, the governments of the United...
is "the Iraq peace." He also claimed that it was "official policy to rape a woman in front of her family" during
Saddam HusseinSaddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the President of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
's regime and that women have enjoyed more rights since the invasion, directly contradicting reports by the
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
,
Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International is an international secular non-governmental organisation which defines its mission as "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated." Founded in London in 1961, AI...
,
Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo, Toronto,...
and the
Organization of Women's Freedom in IraqThe Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq is an organization which campaigns in favour of women's rights in Iraq, and against political Islam. It was founded in 2003. Its director is Yanar Mohammed, who is also a co-founder of the organization....
.
James is currently a Patron of the
Burma Campaign UKBurma Campaign UK founded in 1991 is a London based Non Governmental Organisation that aims to achieve the 'restoration of human rights and democracy in Burma . BCUK campaigns on behalf of the Burmese pro-democracy movement and is the largest campaigning organisation for Burma in Europe...
an organisation that campaigns for
human rightsHuman rights refer to the "basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled." Examples of rights and freedoms which have come to be commonly thought of as human rights include civil and political rights, such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of expression, and equality before the...
and democracy in Burma.
Describing religions as "advertising agencies for a product that doesn't exist," James is an atheist and sees this as the default, obvious position.
Though he has never displayed any linguistic talents to the public, James claims to be able to read, with varying fluency,
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
,
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
,
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, and by a total of around 70 million in the world. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four official languages. It is also the official language of San Marino, as well as the primary language of Vatican City...
,
SpanishSpanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...
,
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
,
Ancient GreekAncient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic , Classical , and Hellenistic periods of ancient Greece and the ancient world. It is predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
,
RussianRussian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe...
and
Japaneseis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family. There are a number of proposed relationships with other languages, but none have gained general acceptance...
. A notable
tangoTango is a musical genre and its associated dance forms that originated in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay, and spread to the rest of the world soon after.Early tango was known as tango criollo, or simply tango...
enthusiast, he has been known to travel to
Buenos AiresBuenos Aires is the capital, and largest city, of Argentina, currently the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the eastern shore of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
purely for
danceDance is a sport and art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
lessons and has a dance floor in his house which allows him to practice.
A former heavy
drinkerDrinker was a genus of hypsilophodont dinosaur from the late Jurassic period of North America. Although based on good remains, it remains obscure due to a lack of post-naming publications.-Description:...
and
smoker Tobacco smoking is the practice where tobacco is burned and the vapors either tasted or inhaled. The practice began as early as 5000–3000 BC. Many civilizations burnt incense during religious rituals, which was later adopted for pleasure or as a social tool. Tobacco was introduced to the old world...
, who records in
North Face of Soho his habit of filling a
hubcapA hubcap, wheel cover or wheel trim is a decorative disk on an automobile wheel that covers at least a central portion of the wheel. Cars with stamped steel wheels often use a full wheel cover that conceals the entire wheel...
ashtrayAn ashtray is a receptacle for ash and butts from cigarettes and cigars of tobacco and cannabis. Ashtrays are typically made of fireproof material such as glass, heat-resistant plastic, pottery, or metal....
daily, James now drinks only socially and stopped smoking in 2005.
Work as a critic and essayist
He worked as a
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
criticThe word critic comes from the Greek , "able to discern", which in turn derives from the word , meaning a person who offers reasoned judgment or analysis, value judgment, interpretation, or observation...
for
The ObserverThe Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In about the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a left-liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-History:The...
between 1972 and 1982.
Selections from the column were published in three books —
Visions Before Midnight,
The Crystal Bucket and
Glued to the Box — and finally in a compendium,
On Television.
He has written
literary criticismLiterary criticism is the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...
extensively for newspapers, magazines and periodicals in
BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
and
AmericaThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, including, amongst many others,
The Australian Book Review,
The MonthlyThe Monthly is an Australian national magazine of politics, society and the arts, which is published eleven times per year on a monthly basis excepting the December/January issue. Founded in 2005, it is published by Morry Schwartz, a successful Melbourne property developer...
,
The Atlantic MonthlyThe Atlantic is an American magazine founded as The Atlantic Monthly in Boston in 1857. It was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine. Though based in Boston, it quickly achieved a national reputation, which it held for more than a century. It was important for recognizing and...
, the
New York Review of Books,
The LiberalThe Liberal magazine is a quarterly literary and political publication "devoted to promoting liberalism around the world". The Liberal was first founded in 1821 by the Romantic poets Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron and Leigh Hunt, and was relaunched in July 2004 ‒ 180 years after it ceased...
and the
Times Literary Supplement.
The Metropolitan Critic, his first collection of
literary criticismLiterary criticism is the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...
and other essays was published in 1974, followed by
At the Pillars of Hercules (1979),
From the Land of Shadows (1982),
Snakecharmers in Texas (1988),
The Dreaming Swimmer (1992),
Even As We Speak (2004),
The Meaning of Recognition (2005) and
Cultural Amnesia-Subjects:The book is ordered into an alphabetical series of essays concerning cultural or historical figures, mostly from the 20th century. The people James discusses are as follows:*Anna Akhmatova*Peter Altenberg*Louis Armstrong*Raymond Aron*Walter Benjamin...
(2007), an
intellectualAn intellectual is a person who uses his or her intelligence and analytical thinking, either in a professional or a personal capacity.-Terminology and endeavours:...
autobiographyAn autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
based around over 100 significant figures in modern
cultureCulture is a term that has different meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
,
historyHistory is the study of the human past, with special attention to the written record. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns...
and
politicsPolitics is a process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic and religious institutions...
. A powerful defence of
humanismHumanism is a perspective common to a wide range of ethical stances that attaches importance to human dignity, concerns, and capabilities, particularly rationality. Although the word has many senses, its meaning comes into focus when contrasted to the supernatural or to appeals to authority...
,
liberal democracyLiberal democracy is the dominant form of democracy in the 21st century. During the Cold War, liberal democracies were contrasted with the Communist People's Republics or "Popular Democracies", which claimed an alternative conception of democracy...
and
literary clarityObscurantism is the practice of deliberately preventing the facts or full details of something from becoming known...
, the book has been seen as the fruition of 40 years of James' learning and experience. A further volume of essays,
The Revolt of the Pendulum, was published in June 2009.
He has also published
Flying Visits, a collection of
travel writingTravel writing is a style of writing that describes a place, usually using humorous and opinionated views, personal to the writer, or serious and greatly descriptive prose....
written for
The ObserverThe Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In about the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a left-liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-History:The...
.
Work as a poet and lyricist
James has always been active as a
poetA poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, regularly publishing in periodicals all over the
English-speaking worldThe English-speaking world consists of those countries or regions that use the English language to one degree or another.-Number of native speakers by country:-See also:*Anglosphere*History of the English language*British Empire...
. He has published several books of poetry, including
Poem of the Year (1983), a verse-diary,
Other Passports: poems 1958-1985, a first collection, and
The Book of My Enemy (2003), a volume including
lyricsLyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
that takes its title from arguably James's most famous poem,
The Book of My Enemy Has Been Remaindered.
He has published four
mock-heroicMock-heroic, mock-epic or heroi-comic works are typically satires or parodies that mock common Classical stereotypes of heroes and heroic literature...
poems:
The Fate of Felicity Fark in the Land of the Media: a moral poem (1975),
Peregrine Prykke's Pilgrimage Through the London Literary World (1976),
Britannia Bright's Bewilderment in the Wilderness of Westminster (1976) and
Charles Charming's Challenges on the Pathway to the Throne (1981), the second of which is notable in particular.
During the seventies he also collaborated on six albums of songs with
Pete AtkinPete Atkin is a British singer-songwriter and radio producer notable for his 1970s musical collaborations with Clive James and for producing the BBC Radio 4 series This Sceptred Isle.-Early life:...
:
- Beware Of The Beautiful Stranger (1970),
- Driving Through Mythical America (1971),
- A King At Nightfall (1973),
- The Road Of Silk (1974),
- Secret Drinker (1974), and
- Live Libel (1975).
A revival of interest in the songs in the late 1990s, triggered largely by the creation by Steve Birkill of an internet mailing list "Midnight Voices" in 1997, led to the reissue of the six albums on CD between 1997 and 2001, as well as live performances by the pair. A double-album of previously-unrecorded songs written in the seventies and entitled
The Lakeside Sessions: Volumes 1 and 2 was released in 2002 and "Winter Spring", an album of new material written by James and Atkin was released in 2003.
James has acknowledged the importance of the "Midnight Voices" group in bringing to wider attention the lyric-writing aspect of his career. He wrote in November 1997 that, "one of the midnight voices of my own fate should be [that] the music of Pete Atkin continues to rank high among the blessings of my life, and on my behalf as well as his I bless you all for your attention".
Work as a novelist and memoirist
In 1979 he published his first book of
autobiographyAn autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
,
Unreliable Memoirs, which recounted his early life in
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
and was a tremendous
publishingPublishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information – the activity of making information available for public view...
success which has by now extended to over a hundred reprintings. It was followed by four other volumes of autobiography:
Falling Towards England (1985), which covered his London years;
May Week Was in June (1990), which dealt with his time at
CambridgeThe city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. It is also at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen....
;
North Face of Soho (2006), and
The Blaze of Obscurity (2009), concerning his subsequent career. An omnibus edition of the first three volumes was published under the generic title of
Always Unreliable.
James has also written four novels:
Brilliant Creatures (1983) which was a bestseller,
The Remake (1987),
Brmm! Brmm! (1991), published in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
as
The Man from Japan, and
The Silver Castle (1996).
Work as a television presenter
He developed his television career as a guest commentator on various shows, including as an occasional co-presenter with
Tony WilsonAnthony Howard Wilson, commonly known as Tony Wilson , was an English record label owner, radio presenter, TV show host, nightclub manager, impresario and journalist for Granada Television and the BBC....
on the first series of
So It Goes, the
Granada TelevisionGranada Television is the United Kingdom ITV contractor for North West England and the Isle of Man.It is the only one of the original four ITA franchisees from 1954 that survived as a franchise holder into the twenty-first century. Broadcasting began on 3 May 1956, with the company originally...
pop musicPop music is a music genre that developed from the mid-1950s as a softer alternative to rock 'n' roll and later to rock music. It has a focus on commercial recording, often orientated towards a youth market, usually through the medium of relatively short and simple love songs...
show. On the show when the
Sex PistolsThe Sex Pistols are an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They are responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
made their TV debut, James commented: "During the recording, the task of keeping the little bastards under control was given to me. With the aid of a radio microphone, I was able to shout them down, but it was a near thing...they attacked everything around them and had difficulty in being polite even to each other.".
In the fourth volume of his
autobiographyAn autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
James mentions the unpleasant behaviour of
Sid ViciousSid Vicious was an English musician best known as the bassist of the influential punk rock group Sex Pistols.- Early life :...
, but several commentators have pointed out that he could not have met him as the
Sex PistolsThe Sex Pistols are an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They are responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
'
bassistA bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...
at the time was Glenn Matlock, Sid Vicious only joining the band in 1977.
James subsequently hosted the
ITVITV is a public service network of British commercial television broadcasters, set up under the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC. ITV is the oldest commercial television network in the UK...
show
Clive James on Television, in which he showcased unusual or (often unintentionally) amusing television programmes from around the world, notably the
Japaneseis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family. There are a number of proposed relationships with other languages, but none have gained general acceptance...
TV show
Endurance"The Endurance" was a Japanese television show from the 1980s. It is not particularly well known or remembered in Japan, but it became famous in other countries, particularly Britain, due to its appearance on the British television programmes Clive James on Television, and subsequently Tarrant on...
. After his defection to the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
in 1989, he hosted a similarly-formatted programme called
Saturday Night Clive which later became
Sunday Night Clive. In 1995 he set up Watchmaker Productions to produce
The Clive James Show for ITV, and a subsequent series of this launched the British career of singer and comedienne Margarita Pracatan. James hosted one of the early chat shows on
Channel 4Channel 4 is a UK public-service television broadcaster which began working on November 2, 1982. Although commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station owned now and operated by the Channel Four Television...
and fronted the BBC's
Review of the Year programmes in the late 1980s and 1990s, which formed part of the channel's
New Year's EveNew Year's Eve or Old Year's Night is on , the final day of the Gregorian year, and the day before New Year's Day.New Year's Eve is a separate observance from the observance of New Year's Day...
celebrations.
In the mid-1980s, James featured in a travel programme called
Clive James in... (beginning with
Clive James in Las Vegas) for LWT (now
ITVITV is a public service network of British commercial television broadcasters, set up under the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC. ITV is the oldest commercial television network in the UK...
) and later switched to
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
, where he continued producing travel programmes, this time called
Clive James' Postcard from... (beginning with
Clive James' Postcard from Miami). He was also one of the original team of presenters of the BBC's
The Late Show, hosting a round-table discussion on Friday nights.
His major
documentaryDocumentary film is a broad category of visual expressions that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to "document" reality. Although "documentary film" originally referred to movies shot on film stock, it has subsequently expanded to include video and digital productions that can...
series
Fame in the 20th CenturyFame in the 20th Century was a 1993 BBC documentary television series and book by Clive James. The book and series examined the phenomenon fame and how it expanded to international mass media proportions throughout the 20th century. The 8 episodes were divided in roughly 8 decades, from the 1900s...
(1993) was broadcast in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
by the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
, in
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
by the
ABCThe Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC", is Australia's national public broadcaster. With a total budget of AUD$1.13 Billion annually, the corporation provides television, radio, online and mobile services throughout metropolitan and regional Australia, as well as...
and in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
by the
PBSThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television service with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. However, its operations are largely funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting...
network. This series dealt with the concept of "fame" in the 20th century, following over a course of 8 episodes (each one chronologically and roughly devoted to one decade of the century, from the 1900s to the 1980s) discussions about world famous people of the 20th century (for example
Charlie ChaplinSir Charles Spencer Chaplin, KBE was an English comedic actor and film director. Chaplin became one of the most famous actors as well as a notable filmmaker, composer and musician in the early to mid Classical Hollywood era of American cinema.Chaplin acted in, directed, scripted, produced and...
,
Al CaponeAlphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone was an American gangster who led a crime syndicate dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging of liquor and other illegal activities during the Prohibition Era of the 1920s and 1930s....
,
Clark GableWilliam Clark Gable was an American film actor, nicknamed "The King of Hollywood" in his heyday. In , the American Film Institute named Gable seventh among the greatest male stars of all time....
,
Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...
,
Elvis PresleyElvis Aaron Presley was an American singer and actor. A cultural icon, he is commonly known simply as Elvis and is also sometimes referred to as The King of Rock 'n' Roll or The King....
,
Marilyn MonroeMarilyn Monroe , born Norma Jeane Mortenson, but baptized Norma Jeane Baker, was an American actress, singer and model....
,
Frank SinatraFrancis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the "bobby soxers." His professional career had stalled by the...
,
MadonnaMadonna is an American recording artist, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, and raised in Rochester Hills, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977, for a career in modern dance...
,...). Through the use of famous and less famous film footage featuring famous things done by these celebrities, James presented a history of the phenomenon "fame" which explored its growth to today's global proportions. In his closing monologue he remarked, "Achievement without fame can be a rewarding life, while fame without achievement is no life at all."
James presented the 1982, 1984 and 1986 official
Formula OneFormula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1, and currently officially referred to as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" in the name refers to a set of rules to which all participants...
season review videos. A keen
motorsportMotorsport is the collection of sports which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles.Motorsport includes all forms of motor racing as well as non-racing motorized sports.-Motor racing:...
enthusiast, his style of witty narration was popular with fans. He also presented
The Clive James Formula 1 Show for
ITVITV is a public service network of British commercial television broadcasters, set up under the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC. ITV is the oldest commercial television network in the UK...
to coincide with their
Formula OneFormula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1, and currently officially referred to as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" in the name refers to a set of rules to which all participants...
coverage in .
One of his most famous quotations concerning television is, "Anyone afraid of what he thinks television does to the world is probably just afraid of the world".
Work on radio
In 2007, James started presenting the
BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is a domestic UK radio station that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967.-Outline:...
show
A Point of View, with transcripts appearing in the "Magazine" section of
BBC News OnlineBBC News Online is the website of BBC News, the division of the BBC responsible for newsgathering and production. The website is the most popular news website in the United Kingdom and forms a major part of BBC Online ....
. In this show James discusses various issues with a slightly humorous slant, not dissimilar to a newspaper
op-edAn op-ed, abbreviated from opposite the editorial page , is a newspaper article that expresses the opinions of a named writer who is usually unaffiliated with the newspaper's editorial board. These are different from editorials, which are usually unsigned and written by editorial board members...
. Topics covered included media portrayal of torture, young black role models and corporate
rebrandingRebranding is the process by which a product or service developed with one brand, company or product line affiliation is marketed or distributed with a different identity. This may involve radical changes to the brand's logo, brand name, image, marketing strategy, and advertising themes...
. Three of James's broadcasts in 2007 were shortlisted for the 2008
Orwell PrizeThe Orwell Prize is regarded as the pre-eminent British prize for political writing. Every year, two prizes are awarded: one for a book, and the other for political journalism...
.
In October 2009 James read a radio version of volume 5 of his Unreliable Memoirs,
The Blaze of Obscurity, on BBC Radio 4's
Book of the WeekBook of the Week is a BBC Radio 4 series broadcast daily on week days. Each week the selected book, always a non-fiction work, is read in five episodes; each fifteen-minute episode is broadcast in the morning and repeated overnight . The Act of Worship replaces the morning broadcast on...
programme.
He has posted
vlogVideo blogging, sometimes shortened to vlogging or vidblogging is a form of blogging for which the medium is video, and is a form of Internet television. Entries are made regularly and often combine embedded video or a video link with supporting text, images, and other metadata...
conversationsConversations is the second album from alternative rock band Roses Are Red.-Track listing:# White and Gold # I Felt I Knew Her # Time Signals Progress # Oceans # I Apologize # 12:34 # Silver Linings...
from his internet show
Talking in the Library, available via Slate.com, with, amongst many others, such notable cultural figures as
Ian McEwanIan Russell McEwan, CBE, FRSA, FRSL, is a Booker Prize-winning English novelist and screenwriter.-Early life:McEwan was born in Aldershot, the son of Rose Lilian Violet and David McEwan. He spent much of his childhood in East Asia, Germany and North Africa, where his father, a Scottish army...
,
Cate BlanchettCatherine Élise "Cate" Blanchett is an Australian actress and theatre director. She has won multiple acting awards, most notably two SAGs, two Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTAs, an Academy Award, as well as the Volpi Cup at 64th Venice International Film Festival.Blanchett came to international...
,
Julian BarnesJulian Patrick Barnes is a contemporary English writer. He has been shortlisted three times for the Man Booker Prize...
,
Jonathan MillerSir Jonathan Wolfe Miller, CBE is a British theatre and opera director, author, television presenter, humorist and sculptor. Trained as a physician in the late 1950s, he first came to prominence in 1962 when the British comedy stage revue Beyond the Fringe came to Broadway...
and
Terry GilliamTerrence Vance "Terry" Gilliam is an American-born British writer, filmmaker, animator, actor and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam is also known for directing several well-regarded films including Time Bandits , Brazil , The Fisher King , and 12 Monkeys...
. In addition to the
poetryPoetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
and
proseProse is the ordinary form of written language. The word "prose" is derived from the Latin prosa, which literally translates to "straightforward". Prose is adopted for the discussion of facts and topical reading, as it is often articulated in free form writing style...
of Clive James himself, the site features the works of other literary figures such as
Les MurrayLeslie Allan Murray, AO , known as Les Murray, is an Australian poet, anthologist and critic. His career spans over forty years, and he has published nearly thirty volumes of poetry, as well as two verse novels and collections of his prose writings...
and
Michael FraynMichael J. Frayn is an English playwright and novelist. He is best known as the author of the farce Noises Off and the dramas Copenhagen and Democracy...
, as well as the works of painters, sculptors and photographers such as
John OlsenJohn Henry Olsen, AO, OBE is an Australian artist. Olsen's primary subject of work is landscape.-Life and work:...
and
Jeffrey SmartJeffrey Smart , is an expatriate Australian painter, who is known for his modernist depictions of urban landscapes.His first goal was to become an architect; however, he went on to become an art teacher after studying at Adelaide Teacher's College and the South Australian School of Art and Crafts...
.
Work in theatre
In 2008 James performed in two self-titled shows at the
Edinburgh Comedy FestivalEdinburgh Comedy Festival is a collection of comedy shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe which runs each August.-Media coverage:In June 2008, there were many news stories and commentaries in the media about the launch of the Edinburgh Comedy Festival, both positive and negative.Much was reported...
:
Clive James in Conversation and
Clive James in the Evening. He took the latter show on a limited tour of the UK in 2009.
Acclaim and criticism
In 1992, he was made a Member of the
Order of AustraliaThe Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia on 14 February 1975 "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"....
and in 2003 he was awarded the
Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal for LiteraturePhilip Ian Hodgins was an Australian poet.Philip Hodgins was born in Shepparton, Victoria in 1959 and spent his childhood on his parent's dairy farm at nearby Katandra West...
. He has received honorary doctorates from the
University of SydneyThe University of Sydney is the oldest university in Australia. It was established in Sydney in 1850. It is a member of Australia's "Group of Eight" universities that are highly ranked in terms of their research performance...
and the
University of East AngliaThe University of East Anglia is a public research university in Norwich, England. It was established in 1963, and is a founder-member of the 1994 Group of research-intensive universities. The University was ranked 20th in the The Times Good University Guide 2008, and joint first for student...
.
John GrossJohn Gross is an English literary critic, author, and anthologist. He was the editor of The Times Literary Supplement from 1974 to 1981, a book editor and book critic on the staff of The New York Times from 1983 to 1989, and theatre critic for The Sunday Telegraph from 1989 to 2005...
included James's essay 'A Blizzard of Tiny Kisses' in the
Oxford Book of Essays in 1992, and included an excerpt from
Unreliable Memoirs in
The New Oxford Book of English Prose in 1999. In April 2008, James was awarded a Special Award for Writing and Broadcasting by the
Orwell PrizeThe Orwell Prize is regarded as the pre-eminent British prize for political writing. Every year, two prizes are awarded: one for a book, and the other for political journalism...
. His book,
Cultural Amnesia-Subjects:The book is ordered into an alphabetical series of essays concerning cultural or historical figures, mostly from the 20th century. The people James discusses are as follows:*Anna Akhmatova*Peter Altenberg*Louis Armstrong*Raymond Aron*Walter Benjamin...
, was listed among the best books of 2007 by
The Village VoiceThe Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper in New York City, United States featuring investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts reviews and events listings for New York City...
. In
Pure Pleasure, published in 2000,
John CareyJohn Carey is the name of:* John Carey , United States Representative from Ohio* John Carey , a courtier to King Henry VIII* John Carey , British literary critic...
chose
Unreliable Memoirs as one of the fifty most enjoyable books of the twentieth century.
However,
The Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Colonel Arthur B. Sleigh in June 1855 as the Daily Telegraph and Courier...
's
Lynn BarberLynn Barber is a British journalist, currently writing for The Sunday Times.Barber is from Bagshot, Surrey. She attended Lady Eleanor Holles School and studied English Language and Literature at St Anne's College, Oxford....
wondered “why the distinguished polyglot Clive James blows his own trumpet so incessantly... He needs you to know that he is a polymath and a polyglot... But what is the point of criticism that neither explains nor illuminates?" and
The SpectatorThe Spectator is a weekly Britishmagazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by the Barclay brothers, who also own The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
s
James DelingpoleJames Delingpole is a British journalist and novelist. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford. He is the author of several novels and two non-fiction books, How to be Right: The Essential Guide to Making Lefty Liberals History, and Welcome to Obamaland: I Have Seen Your Future and It Doesn't Work...
spoke of his "false modest... smug... showing off", castigated his constant striving for effect and concluded "none of us gives a stuff how much you know about the minor films of Robert Mitchum"
See also
- Peter Porter (poet)
Peter Neville Frederick Porter is an Australian-born British poet. He was a regular participant in the weekly meetings of The Group.-Life:Porter was born in Brisbane, Australia, in 1929. His mother died in 1938...
, friend, and a regular partner in discussions on radio
- Edward Pygge
Edward Pygge was a pseudonym used by Ian Hamilton, John Fuller, Clive James, Russell Davies and Julian Barnes.Hamilton invented the name, and he and James used it...
, a pseudonym used by James
External links
- CliveJames.com
- The Clive James Show Clive James recorded these video interviews with artists, writers, filmakers and actors in his London home.
- Clive James at the Internet Movie Database
The Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, actors, television shows, production crew personnel, video games, and most recently, fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media...
- Interfacing With Clive James by Brendan Bernhard, New York Sun
The New York Sun was a contemporary five-day daily newspaper published in New York City from 2002 until 2008. When it debuted on 2002-04-16, it became "the first general interest broadsheet newspaper to be launched in New York in two generations." The newspaper's president and editor-in-chief was...
, 18 January 2006
- Clive James at Edinburgh Comedy Festival
- Interview, Leicester Mercury