by Clive James
Listening to the Flavour: Poetry (Chicago), December 2006
Five Favourite Poetry Books: Wall Street Journal, 6 January 2007
The Arrow Has Not Two Points: Poetry (Chicago), December 2007
Meeting MacNeice: commissioned by the Reading for Life project, 2006
Little Low Heavens: Poetry (Chicago), October 2008
On a Second Reading: Poetry (Chicago), December 2008
The Necessary Minimum: Poetry (Chicago), August 2009
A Deeper Consideration: Poetry (Chicago), September 2010
Product Placement in Modern Poetry: Poetry (Chicago), May 2011
Technique’s Marginal Centrality: Poetry (Chicago), January 2012
A Stretch of Verse: Poetry (Chicago), November 2012
The Donaghy Negotiation (first published as an introduction to Michael Donaghy’s collected critical writings, The Shape of the Dance, 2009)
There You Come Home, Quadrant, April 2011
Interior Music: Poetry (Chicago), September 2013
Part II
John Updike’s Poetic Finality: New York Times Book Review, 3 May 2009
Stephen Edgar Stays Perfect: TLS, 4 September 2009
Poetry Heaven, Election Hell: Standpoint, July/August 2009
Les Murray’s Palatial New Shed: Monthly, April 2010
Talking to Posterity: Peter Porter 1929–2010: TLS, 14 May 2010
Elegance in Overalls: The American Pastoral of Christian Wiman: Financial Times, 12 November 2010
Michael Longley Blends In: Financial Times, 18 March 2011
Spectator Diary: Spectator, 26 May 2012
Building the Sound of Sense: Prospect, January 2014
Part III
Trumpets at Sunset: TLS, 16 May 2014
About the Author
Clive James is the author of more than forty books. As well as essays, he has published collections of literary and television criticism, travel writing, verse and novels, plus five volumes of autobiography. As a television performer he appeared regularly for both the BBC and ITV, most notably as writer and presenter of the ‘Postcard’ series of travel documentaries. In 1992 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia and in 2003 he was awarded the Philip Hodgins memorial medal for literature. He holds honorary doctorates from Sydney University and the University of East Anglia. In 2012 he was appointed CBE and in 2013 an Officer of the Order of Australia.
Also by
CLIVE JAMES
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Unreliable Memoirs Falling Towards England
May Week Was In June Always Unreliable
North Face of Soho The Blaze of Obscurity
FICTION
Brilliant Creatures The Remake
Brrm! Brrm! The Silver Castle
VERSE
Other Passports: Poems 1958–1985
The Book of My Enemy: Collected Verse 1958–2003
Opal Sunset: Selected Poems 1958–2008
Angels Over Elsinore: Collected Verse 2003–2008
Nefertiti in the Flak Tower: Collected Verse 2008–2011
TRANSLATION
The Divine Comedy
CRITICISM
The Metropolitan Critic (new edition, 1994)
Visions Before Midnight The Crystal Bucket
First Reactions (US) From the Land of Shadows
Glued to the Box Snakecharmers in Texas
The Dreaming Swimmer Fame in the Twentieth Century
On Television Even as We Speak
Reliable Essays As of This Writing (US)
The Meaning of Recognition Cultural Amnesia
The Revolt of the Pendulum A Point of View
TRAVEL
Flying Visits
First published 2014 by Picador
This electronic edition published 2014 by Picador
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ISBN 978-1-4472-6915-1
Copyright © Clive James 2014
Cover artwork © Claerwen James
Author Photograph © Robert Banks/The Age
The right of Clive James to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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