Clive James

Clive James (born Vivian Leopold James; 7 October 1939 – 24 November 2019) was an Australian critic, journalist, broadcaster, writer and lyricist who lived and worked in the United Kingdom from 1962 until his death in 2019.Clive James — writer, TV broadcaster and critic — dies aged 80
''ABC News'', 28 November 2019. Retrieved 28 November 2019. He began his career specialising in literary criticism before becoming television critic for ''The Observer'' in 1972, where he made his name for his wry, deadpan humour.

During this period, he earned an independent reputation as a poet and satirist. He achieved mainstream success in the UK first as a writer for television, and eventually as the lead in his own programmes, including '' ...on Television''.

Early life

James was born Vivian Leopold James in Kogarah, a southern suburb of Sydney. He was allowed to change his name as a child because "after Vivien Leigh played Scarlett O'Hara the name became irrevocably a girl's name no matter how you spelled it".James, C., ''Unreliable Memoirs'', Pan Books, 1981, p. 29. He chose "Clive", the name of Tyrone Power's character in the 1942 film '' This Above All''.

James's father, Albert Arthur James, was taken prisoner by the Japanese during World War II. Although he survived the prisoner-of-war camp, he died when the American B-24 carrying him and other freed allied POWs ran into the tail of a typhoon en route from Okinawa to Manila, and crashed into the mountains of southeastern Taiwan. He was buried at Sai Wan War Cemetery in Hong Kong. James would later state that his life's works originated in his father's death.

James, an only child, was brought up by his mother (Minora May, née Darke), a factory worker,Decca Aitkenhea
"Clive James: 'I would have been an obvious first choice for cocaine death. I could use up a lifetime's supply of anything in two weeks'"
''The Guardian'', 25 May 2009. in the Sydney suburbs of Kogarah and Jannali, living some years with his English maternal grandfather.

He was educated at Sydney Technical High School (despite winning a bursary award to Sydney Boys High School) and the University of Sydney, where he studied English and psychology from 1957 to 1960, and became associated with the Sydney Push, a libertarian intellectual subculture. At the university, he contributed to the student newspaper, '' Honi Soit'', and directed the annual students' union revue. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in English in 1961. After graduating, James worked for a year as an assistant editor for the magazine page at ''The Sydney Morning Herald''.

In 1962, James moved to England, which became his home for the rest of his life. During his first three years in London, he shared a flat with the Australian film director Bruce Beresford (disguised as "Dave Dalziel" in the first three volumes of James's memoirs), was a neighbour of Australian artist Brett Whiteley, became acquainted with Barry Humphries (disguised as "Bruce Jennings") and had a variety of occasionally disastrous short-term jobs – sheet metal worker, library assistant, photo archivist and market researcher.

James gained a place at Pembroke College, Cambridge, to read English literature. While there, he contributed to all the undergraduate periodicals, was a member and later President of the Cambridge Footlights, and appeared on ''University Challenge'' as captain of the Pembroke team, beating St Hilda's, Oxford, but losing to Balliol on the last question in a tied game.

During one summer vacation, he worked as a circus roustabout to save enough money to travel to Italy. His contemporaries at Cambridge included Germaine Greer (known as "Romaine Rand" in the first three volumes of his memoirs), Simon Schama and Eric Idle. Having, he claimed, 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 PhD thesis on Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Career

Critic and essayist

James became the television critic for ''The Observer'' in 1972, remaining in the role until 1982. Mark Lawson described a James review as "so funny it was dangerous to read while holding a hot drink". He was at times merciless. 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 wrote literary criticism for newspapers, magazines and periodicals in Britain, Australia and the United States, including, among many others, the '' Australian Book Review'', ''The Monthly'', ''The Atlantic'', ''The New York Review of Books'', '' The Liberal'' and ''The Times Literary Supplement''. John Gross included James's essay "A Blizzard of Tiny Kisses" in the ''Oxford Book of Essays'' (1992, 1999).

''The Metropolitan Critic'' (1974), his first collection of literary criticism, was 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'' (2001), ''The Meaning of Recognition'' (2005) and ''Cultural Amnesia'' (2007), a collection of miniature intellectual biographies of over 100 significant figures in modern culture, history and politics. A defence of humanism, liberal democracy and literary clarity, the book was listed among the best of 2007 by ''The Village Voice''. Another volume of essays, ''The Revolt of the Pendulum'', was published in June 2009.

He also published ''Flying Visits'', a collection of travel writing for ''The Observer''. For many years, until mid-2014, he wrote the weekly television critique page in the "Review" section of the Saturday edition of ''The Daily Telegraph''.

Poet and lyricist

James 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 that takes its title from his poem "The Book of My Enemy Has Been Remaindered".

He published four mock-heroic 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) – and one long autobiographical epic, ''The River in the Sky'' (2018).

During the 1970s he also collaborated on six albums of songs with Pete Atkin:

* ''Beware of the Beautiful Stranger'' (1970)
* ''Driving Through Mythical America'' (1971)
* ''A King at Nightfall'' (1973)
* ''The Road of Silk'' (1974)
* ''Secret Drinker'' (1974)
* ''Live Libel'' (1975)

Atkin and James toured together to promote both the final album – a "contractual obligation" collection consisting of parodies and humour numbers written over the years - and James's own ''Felicity Fark'' epic poem. James wrote the album sleeve notes, which mostly linked the songs with thinly disguised jibes at popular artists and trends. On stage James both read from his poem, and introduced the album songs. Despite the success of the tour, there were no more recordings by Atkin, who pursued other opportunities and eventually became a BBC radio producer.

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. This was followed by ''Midnight Voices'', an album of remakes of the best Atkin/James songs from the early albums, and, in 2015, by ''The Colours of the Night'', which included several newly completed songs.

James 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 the music of Pete Atkin continues to rank high among the blessings of my life".

In 2013, he issued his translation of Dante's ''Divine Comedy''. The work, adopting quatrains to translate the original's terza rima, was well received by Australian critics. Writing for ''The New York Times'', Joseph Luzzi thought it often failed to capture the more dramatic moments of the ''Inferno'', but that it was more successful where Dante slows down, in the more theological and deliberative cantos of the ''Purgatorio'' and ''Paradiso''.

Novelist and memoirist

In 1980 James published his first book of autobiography, '' Unreliable Memoirs'', which recounted his early life in Australia and extended to over 100 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 Cambridge; ''North Face of Soho'' (2006); and ''The Blaze of Obscurity'' (2009), concerning his subsequent career as a television presenter. An omnibus edition of the first three volumes was published under the generic title of ''Always Unreliable''. James also wrote four novels: ''Brilliant Creatures'' (1983); ''The Remake'' (1987); ''Brrm! Brrm!'' (1991), published in the United States as ''The Man from Japan''; and ''The Silver Castle'' (1996).

In 1999, John Gross included an excerpt from ''Unreliable Memoirs'' in ''The New Oxford Book of English Prose''. John Carey chose ''Unreliable Memoirs'' as one of the 50 most enjoyable books of the 20th century in his book ''Pure Pleasure'' (2000).

Television

James developed his television career as a guest commentator on various shows, including as an occasional co-presenter with Tony Wilson on the first series of '' So It Goes'', the Granada Television pop music show. On the show when the Sex Pistols 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".

James subsequently hosted the ITV show '' Clive James on Television'', in which he showcased unusual or (often unintentionally) amusing television programmes from around the world, notably the Japanese TV show ''Endurance''. After his move to the BBC
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