This memoir series offers a blend of humor and poignancy, chronicling the extraordinary life of Clive James, a renowned author, poet, and broadcaster. Spanning three volumes, it captures his unique experiences and reflections, showcasing his wit and insight. The critically-acclaimed series has resonated with readers, selling over a million copies, and provides a compelling narrative of personal and professional triumphs and challenges.
Renowned critic, bestselling author and award-winning poet Clive James offers
an exploration and celebration of one of his favourite writers, Philip Larkin.
A soaring autobiographical poem, meditating on death and celebrating life,
from one of our most cherished, critically acclaimed and bestselling writers.
Clive James returns with another collection of deeply moving and life-
affirming poems, following his critically acclaimed, bestselling book
Sentenced to Life.
Focusing on a lifetime of experiences, Clive James's collected poems showcase his evolution from early satires to poignant late works. This volume highlights his mastery of both short lyrical forms and humorous verse, reflecting his effortless fluency and emotional depth. Notable pieces like "Japanese Maple" have garnered significant attention, further expanding his readership. With over fifty years of poetry, this collection underscores James's thematic diversity and solidifies his status as a leading contemporary poet.
The collection features technically and emotionally impactful poems that reflect on a rich life with honesty and clarity. Clive James navigates themes of regret and mortality without self-pity, focusing instead on celebrating life's treasures and memories. Notable works include "Japanese Maple," which gained acclaim in The New Yorker. The poems offer a poignant exploration of existence, highlighting both the beauty and the challenges faced throughout life's journey.
Filled with Clive James's typical wit, warmth, erudition and enthusiasm, this
is a brilliant and original tribute to one of his great literary loves, Marcel
Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu.
Clive James's reputation as a poet has become impossible to ignore. His recent poems looking back over his extraordinarily rich life with a clear-eyed and unflinching honesty, such as 'Japanese Maple' (first published in the New Yorker in 2014), became global news events upon their publication. His most recent collection, Sentenced to Life, was a phenomenal bestseller in the UK and in Australia, and his translation of Dante's The Divine Comedy was a Sunday Times top ten bestseller in 2013. In this book, James makes his own rich selection from over fifty years' work in verse: from his early satires to these heart-stopping valedictory poems, he proves himself to be as well suited to the intense demands of the tight lyric as he is to the longer mock-epic. Collected Poems displays James's fluency and apparently effortless style, his technical skill and thematic scope, his lightly worn erudition and his emotional power; it will undoubtedly cement his reputation as one of the most versatile and accomplished of contemporary writers.
A world-renowned media and cultural critic offers an insightful analysis of serial TV drama and the modern art of the small screen Television and TV viewing are not what they once were--and that's a good thing, according to award-winning author and critic Clive James. Since serving as television columnist for the London Observer from 1972 to 1982, James has witnessed a radical change in content, format, and programming, and in the very manner in which TV is watched. Here he examines this unique cultural revolution, providing a brilliant, eminently entertaining analysis of many of the medium's most notable twenty-first-century accomplishments and their not always subtle impact on modern society--including such acclaimed serial dramas as Breaking Bad, The West Wing, Mad Men, and The Sopranos, as well as the comedy 30 Rock. With intelligence and wit, James explores a television landscape expanded by cable and broadband and profoundly altered by the advent of Netflix, Amazon, and other "cord-cutting" platforms that have helped to usher in a golden age of unabashed binge-watching.
