Clive James
The Guardian
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Past articles by Clive:
Clive James: 'The poems I remember are the milestones marking the journey of my life'
What makes great poetry? An exclusive extract from the late critic’s final book The Fire of Joy celebrates the poems he loved most → Read More
The Great Barrier Reef, bird-spotting and an opera about Boris Johnson—Clive James signs off
Clive James in the BBC TV series Postcard from Miami, 1989. Photo: PA A few weeks from now, when my homeland is covered by the rising ocean, it will be discovered that the chief reason why the Australian universities were unable to co-ordinate any effective solution to the flooding was the presence within their command structures of too many co-ordinators, conveners and similar types of persons… → Read More
Clive James on saving figure skating—and why poet Les Murray should have won the Nobel
When I first read Les Murray's poetry, an unfamiliar feeling of humility overwhelmed me → Read More
'Grace Kelly seemed like an angel': Clive James and others on their first crushes
With Valentine’s Day in view, the veteran author and more come clean about their crazy, stupid, teenage loves → Read More
Clive James: What I'm reading
The legendary critic on what’s been keeping him entertained—from French lovers to warring dons... → Read More
A life more ordinary: inside Philip Larkin’s extraordinary everyday
Larkin’s correspondence with his mother put him in touch with the precious texture of the everyday, which he transformed into some of the most sublime poetry since Donne and Marvell → Read More
A life more ordinary: inside Philip Larkin’s extraordinary everyday
Larkin’s correspondence with his mother put him in touch with the precious texture of the everyday, which he transformed into some of the most sublime poetry since Donne and Marvell → Read More
Clive James on his new epic poem: ‘The story of a mind heading into oblivion’
In and out of hospital, the writer felt compelled to write something new – an epic, with himself as the hero → Read More
'She is the Queen, whereas you are Joe Shmuck': Clive James on The Crown
How to recover from my latest hospital stay? Watch The Crown – twice, and remember a royal meeting of my own → Read More
Clive James: ‘The trick of coping with a flop is to go on pretending it is a disguised success’
Hardly anybody read my novel. There is an annual meeting of its readers, but it looks like those pictures of polar bears on an ice floe → Read More
Clive James: ‘My wife is visiting the warmer bits of Europe before the whole shebang disintegrates’
I am jealous of her mobility, but determined to profit from being left alone with my books → Read More
Clive James: ‘Australia’s grammar is a vestige, a mere gesture’
Is it because Australians eat so much meat? → Read More
Clive James: ‘In a crisis such as Manchester, words aren’t easily handled’
Proper writers should take responsibility for the pictures their words suggest → Read More
Clive James: ‘My new wheelchair is a thing of beauty and precision’
The same people who conspired to buy it are now competing to get first push → Read More
Clive James: ‘The Death Star is threatening me with a lethal dose of boredom’
All the special effects are bigger now, but you can’t bring on another Han Solo just by pressing a button → Read More
Clive James: ‘Back in the 50s, I saw Abbott and Costello die a death. Two deaths’
As the sketch dragged on, the silence of the audience escalated to the monumental → Read More
Clive James: ‘I have put aside Shakespeare, to remind myself that others can write, too’
The best artists are a bit like children and the best critics are a bit like artists → Read More
Clive James: ‘A reader has complained about my still being alive’
He has guessed the unsettling effect of going nuts in your face, like Peter Capaldi in The Thick Of It → Read More
Clive James: ‘I regret not calling my book Nail-Biting Slug-Fest On The Last Green’
I’m chortling to have got my book done before I roll over and gasp my last → Read More
Clive James: ‘I am planning for a future in which I appear only as a shimmering outline’
I am likely to proclaim that Margaret Thatcher once looked at me in silent awe → Read More