Clive James
Born Vivian Leopold James
7 October 1939 Kogarah, New South Wales, Australia
Died 24 November 2019 (aged 80)
Cambridge, England
Occupation Author, essayist, poet, broadcaster
Clive James AO CBE FRSL (7 October 1939 – 24 November 2019) was an Australian critic, broadcaster and poet who lived and worked in the United Kingdom from 1961 until his death in 2019.
He began his career specialising in literary criticism before becoming television critic for the 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 programs, including Clive James on Television.
Although his most acclaimed poem is probably “Japanese Maple”,he only earned widespread respect, outside of literary circles, later in life. He was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2010; some of his most widely read works followed under the header “Reports of My Death”
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”. He chose “Clive”, the name of Tyrone Power’s character in the 1942 film This Above All.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’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 aeroplane returning him to Australia crashed in Manila Bay; he was buried at Sai Wan War Cemetery in Hong Kong.
James, an only child, was brought up by his mother (Minora May, née Darke), a factory worker, in the Sydney suburbs of Kogarah and Jannali, living some years with his English maternal grandfather.James, an only child, was brought up by his mother (Minora May, née Darke), a factory worker, 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 edited the student newspaper, Honi Soit, and directed the annual 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 studying in Cambridge, 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.In 1962, James moved to England, which became his home for the rest of his life.During his first three years in London studying in Cambridge, he shared a flat with the Australian film director Bruce Beresford.
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”.
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 wrote four other 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 defection to the BBC in 1988, he hosted a similarly-formatted programme called Saturday Night Clive (1988–1990) which initially screened on Saturday evening, returning as Saturday Night Clive on Sunday in its second series when it changed screening day and then Sunday Night Clive in its third and final series. In 1995 he set up Watchmaker Productions to produce The Clive James Show for ITV, and a subsequent series launched the British career of singer and comedian Margarita Pracatan. James hosted one of the early chat shows on Channel 4 and fronted the BBC’s Review of the Year programmes in the late 1980s (Clive James on the ’80s) and 1990s (Clive James on the ’90s), which formed part of the channel’s New Year’s Eve celebrations.
In the mid-1980s, James featured in a travel programme called Clive James in… (beginning with Clive James in Las Vegas) for LWT (now ITV) and later switched to BBC, where he continued producing travel programmes, this time called Clive James’s Postcard from… (beginning with Clive James’s Postcard from Miami) – these also eventually transferred to ITV. He was also one of the original team of presenters of the BBC’s The Late Show, hosting a round-table discussion on Friday nights.
His major documentary series Fame in the 20th Century (1993) was broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC, in Australia by the ABC and in the United States by the PBS network. This series dealt with the concept of “fame” in the 20th century, following over a course of eight episodes (each one chronologically and roughly devoted to one decade of the century, from the 1900s to the 1980s) discussions about world-famous people of the 20th century. Through the use of film footage, James presented a history of “fame” which explored its growth to today’s global proportions. In his closing monologue he remarked, “Achievement without fame can be a rewarding life, while fame without achievement is no life at all.”
A well known fan of motor racing, James presented the 1982, 1984 and 1986 official Formula One season review videos produced by the Formula One Constructors Association, more commonly known as FOCA. James, who attended most F1 races during the 1980s and was a friend of former FOCA boss Bernie Ecclestone, added his own humour to the reviews which became popular with fans of the sport. He also presented The Clive James Formula 1 Show for ITV to coincide with their Formula One coverage in 1997. Summing up the medium, he said: “Anyone afraid of what he thinks television does to the world is probably just afraid of the world.”
Honours In 1992, James was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM). This was upgraded to Officer level (AO) in the 2013 Australia Day Honours. James was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to literature and the media.
He received honorary doctorates from the Universities of Sydney and East Anglia. In April 2008, James was awarded a Special Award for Writing and Broadcasting by the judges of the Orwell Prize.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2010.He was an Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge (his alma mater). In the 2015 BAFTAs, James received a special award honouring his 50-year career. In 2014, he was awarded the President’s Medal by the British Academy.
Personal life
James married Prudence A. “Prue” Shaw,an emeritus reader in Italian studies at University College London and the author of Reading Dante: From Here to Eternity. James and Shaw had two daughters. In April 2012, the Australian Channel Nine programme A Current Affair ran an item in which the former model Leanne Edelsten admitted to an eight-year affair with James beginning in 2004.
After the death of his friend Diana, Princess of Wales, James wrote a piece for The New Yorker entitled “Requiem”, recording his overwhelming grief.
Since then he mainly declined to comment about their friendship, apart from some remarks in his fifth volume of memoirs, Blaze of Obscurity. James was able to read, with varying fluency, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian and Japanese.A tango enthusiast, he travelled to Buenos Aires for dance lessons and had a dance floor in his house.
On 3 September 2013, an interview with journalist Kerry O’Brien, Clive James: The Kid from Kogarah, was broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
In a BBC interview with Charlie Stayt, broadcast on 31 March 2015, James described himself as “near to death but thankful for life”.
However, in October 2015, he admitted to feeling “embarrassment” at still being alive thanks to experimental drug treatment.
Until June 2017, he wrote a weekly column for The Guardian entitled “Reports of My Death…”
James died on 24 November 2019 at his home in Cambridge.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia