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'Arriving in Cambridge on my first day as an undergraduate, I could see nothing except a cold white October mist. At the age of twenty-four I was a complete failure, with nothing to show for my life except a few poems nobody wanted to publish in book form.' Falling Towards England the second volume of Clive James's 'Unreliable Memoirs' was meant to be the last. Thankfully, that's not the case. In 'Unreliable Memoirs III', Clive details his time at Cambridge, including film reviewing, writing show more poetry, falling in love (often), and marrying (once) during May Week which was not only in June but also two weeks long ...'Nobody writes like Clive James; he has invented a style' Spectator 'He turns phrases, mixes together cleverness and clownishness, and achieves a fluency and a level of wit that make his pages truly shimmer ...May Week Was In June is vintage James' Financial Times. show lessTags
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This may have fewer laugh-out-loud moments than its predecessors but it describes the period when he encountered many of the people who have since shaped our national cultural landscape and it does so with Clive's distinctive panache and erudite wit. Like the man himself, there is a brash shyness here: we are given parts of stories but the presentation is so stylish taht it is hard to see through to the core.
James, Clive, 1939-/Authors, Australian > 20th century >/Biography/Cambridge (England) > Social life and customs/Australians > England > Cambridge
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75+ Works 7,301 Members
Vivian Leopold James was born on Oct. 7, 1939, in Kogarah, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. His father was taken prisoner by the Japanese at the beginning of World War II and died when the American transport plane carrying him back to Australia crashed into Manila Bay.He changed his first name to Clive after Vivian Leigh became famous for starring show more in Gone With the Wind. After graduating from the University of Sydney and working briefly as an assistant editor on The Sydney Morning Herald, Mr. James set sail for London in 1962. The first volume of his autobiography, "Unreliable Memoirs", which was published in 1980 and rose to the top of the best-seller list in Britain, described his childhood in Australia. Its sequel, "Falling Towards England", covered, in often painful detail, his mostly unsuccessful attempts to gain traction in London, where he shared a flat with the future filmmaker Bruce Beresford. Pembroke College, Cambridge, came to the rescue, offering him a place. Mr. James did manage to earn a degree and even embarked on a doctoral dissertation. Eric Idle, the future Monty Python star, welcomed him into Footlights, the student theatrical troupe; he became its president. He pressed his poems on every journal available and parlayed his enthusiasm for Hollywood. A scrambling career in literary journalism followed, recounted in "North Face of Soho". His essays were first collected in "The Metropolitan Critic" (1974). Later collections included "At the Pillars of Hercules" (1977) and "From the Land of Shadows" (1982). His television criticism, issued in book form in "Visions Before Midnight" (1977), "The Crystal Bucket" (1981) and "Glued to the Box" (1983), was gathered in a single volume, "On Television," in 1991. Clive Leopold James passed away on Sunday 12/01/2019 in Cambridge, England at the age of 80. show less
Series
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1990
- People/Characters
- Clive James; Pete Atkin; Russell Davies; Meredith Dewey; Romaine Rand; Noël Coward (show all 35); Chips Rafferty; Brian C Adams; Peter Cook; Eric Idle; David Frost; F. R. Leavis; Delmer Dynamo; Bob Marenko; Dave Dalziel; Keith Visconti; Alan Syms; Richard Wilson; Buddy Rajgupta; Chuck Beaurepaire; Bamber Gascoigne; Beryl Dalziel; Graham Hough; Eugenio Montale; Charles III, King of the United Kingdom; Pete Atkin; John Cameron; Daryl Runswick; Robin Nelson; Barry Brown; Jonathan James-Moore; Julie Covington; Robert Buckman; Ian Taylor; David Turner
- Important places
- London, England, UK; Pembroke College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK; University of Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK; Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK
- Epigraph
- "I realise very well that the reader has no great need to know all this; but I need to tell him." - Rousseau, Les Confessions
"I wear a suit of armour made of nothing but my mistakes." - Pierre Reverdy, quoted by Ernst Jünger in Das zweite Pariser Tagebuch, 21 February 1943
"I've never made any secret of the fact that I'm basically on my way to Australia." - Support Your Local Sherrif - Dedication
- in memoriam
Mark Boxer and Tom Weiskel
and to
Gabriella Rosselli del Turco
where she lies sleeping - First words
- Somebody once said that a trilogy ought ideally to consist of two volumes.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)In that respect, I had flown half a million miles before I moved an inch, and these three volumes are just the rattling the side of my cot made when I climbed over, on the first stage of that long, momentous journey across the carpet, towards the light of the open door.
Classifications
- Genres
- Biography & Memoir, Nonfiction, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 070.92 — Computer science, information & general works News media, journalism & publishing Documentary media, educational media, news media; journalism; publishing Biography And History Biographies
- LCC
- PR9619.3 .J27 .Z467 — Language and Literature English English Literature English literature: Provincial, local, etc.
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 258
- Popularity
- 125,523
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.77)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 2
