James, Clive

Opal Sunset: Selected Poems, 1958-2008

Opal Sunset marks the exuberant introduction of Clive James's poetry to an American audience.

Inspired, through his vast reading, by the poetic voices of the past, yet always speaking in a voice unmistakably his own, Clive James ineffably combines humor and great tragedy (but never solemnity) to create poems that are at once traditional yet engagingly fresh. With this coruscating work, James, swimming through cultural debris both high and low, dispenses with his reputation as a perennial court jester, establishing himself as a poet of enduring power and resonance.

Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts

"I can't remember when I've learned as much from something I've read—or laughed as much while doing it."—Jacob Weisberg, Slate

Finally in paperback after six hardcover printings, this international bestseller is an encyclopedic A-Z masterpiece—the perfect introduction to the very core of Western humanism. Clive James rescues, or occasionally destroys, the careers of many of the greatest thinkers, humanists, musicians, artists, and philosophers of the twentieth century. Soaring to Montaigne-like heights, Cultural Amnesia is precisely the book to burnish these memories of a Western civilization that James fears is nearly lost.

As of This Writing: The Essential Essays, 1968-2002

It is impossible not to be awed by the remarkable range and massive erudition of Clive James, one of the greatest literary critics of our age. In the tradition of Edmund Wilson, James is a brilliant stylist so perceptive (and funny) that he renders the twisted literary terrain of the twentieth century remarkably accessible. In As of This Writing James has assembled his most ambitious and expansive collection to date, a book that features forty-nine essays on poetry, film, culture, and fiction written between 1967 and 2001. Whether commenting on poets like Auden or Jarrell, novelists like D. H. Lawrence and James Agee (not to mention Judith Krantz), or filmmakers like Fellini or Bogdanovich, James delights his readers with his manic energy and critical aplomb. This volume is a literary education that few recent books can rival.

Meaning of Recognition: New Essays 2001-2005

Literary critic, cultural commentator, TV personality, journalist, poet, political analyst, satirist and Formula One fan: Clive James is a man (and master) of many talents, and the essays collected here are testament to that fact. Whether discussing Bing Crosby, Bruno Schulz or Shakespeare, he manages to prioritize style and substance simultaneously, his tone never less than pitch-perfect, his argument always considered. With each phrase carefully crafted and each piece offering cause for thought, the resulting volumewhich takes the reader from London to Bali, theatre to library, from pre-election campaigning to sitting in front of the TV at home, watching The Sopranos and The West Wingis remarkable not only for its range and insight, but also its intimacy and honesty.

North Face of Soho

After Unreliable Memoirs, Falling Towards England, and May Week Was in June comes the next installment in the ongoing saga that is Clive James life. At the very end of May Week Was in June, we left our hero sitting beside the River Cam one beautiful 1968 spring day, jotting down his thoughts in a journal. Newly married and about to leave the cloistered world of Cambridge academia for the racier, glossier life promised by Literary London, he was, so he informed his journal, reasonably satisfied. But what happened next? This is the question posed (and answered) by North Face of Soho. Intelligent, amusing, and provocativethe words apply to the man himself as much as his writingthe fourth volume of Unreliable Memoirs is every bit as eventful, entertaining, engrossing, and honest as the previous three.

May Week Was In June

Falling Towards England—the second volume of Clive James’s Unreliable Memoirs, was meant to be the last. Thankfully, that’s not the case. Unreliable Memoirs #3 details Clive’s time at Cambridge: the Footlights, film reviewing, writing poetry, falling in love (often) . As ever, Clive James is brilliantly funny—and perhaps most brilliant, and funniest, on the subject he knows best: himself.

Clive James' Reliable Essays: The Best Of Clive James

Introduced by Julian Barnes, Reliable Essays is the definitive selection of Clive Jamess outstanding essays, chosen from thirty years of spellbinding prose. Including such classic pieces as his Postcard From Rome and his memorable observations on Margaret Thatcher, it also contains brilliantly funny examinations of characters like Barry Humphries, while elsewhere showcasing Jamess more reflective and analytical side. From Germaine Greer to Marilyn Monroe, from the nature of celebrity to German culpability for the Holocaust, Reliable Essays is an unmissable cultural index of the twentieth century.

Brilliant Creatures (Picador Books)

Brrm Brrm

At the Pillars of Hercules