Clive James facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Clive James
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James in 2008
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| Born | Vivian Leopold James 7 October 1939 Kogarah, New South Wales, Australia |
| Died | 24 November 2019 (aged 80) Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England |
| Occupation |
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| Alma mater | University of Sydney Pembroke College, Cambridge |
| Notable works | Unreliable Memoirs Cultural Amnesia |
| Notable awards | Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal for Literature |
| Spouse |
Prudence Shaw
(m. 1968) |
| Children | 2 (including Claerwen James) |
Clive James (born Vivian Leopold James; 7 October 1939 – 24 November 2019) was a famous Australian writer, critic, and TV presenter. He moved to the United Kingdom in 1962 and lived there until he passed away in 2019. Clive James first became known for writing about books, but then he became a TV critic for The Observer newspaper in 1972. People loved his reviews because they were very funny and clever.
He also became well-known as a poet and someone who wrote satire (which is writing that uses humor to make fun of people's mistakes). He became very popular in the UK, first by writing for TV shows, and then by hosting his own programs, like ...on Television.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Clive James was born Vivian Leopold James in Kogarah, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. He was allowed to change his name when he was a child. He picked "Clive" because he liked the name of a character in a movie.
Clive's father, Albert Arthur James, was taken prisoner during World War II. He survived the prison camp, but he died when the plane carrying him and other freed soldiers crashed. This happened when the plane flew into a typhoon on its way from Okinawa to Manila. His father's death was a very sad event that influenced much of Clive's later work.
Clive was an only child and was raised by his mother, Minora May, in Sydney. He also lived with his English grandfather for some years.
He went to Sydney Technical High School and then the University of Sydney. There, he studied English and psychology from 1957 to 1960. He was part of a group of smart students who liked to discuss ideas. At university, he wrote for the student newspaper, Honi Soit, and helped direct student plays. He earned a degree in English in 1961. After graduating, he worked for a year as an editor for The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.
In 1962, Clive James moved to England, which became his home. In his first few years in London, he shared a flat with a friend and had many different short-term jobs. These jobs included working in a library and doing market research.
He later got a place at Pembroke College at Cambridge University to study English literature. While there, he wrote for student magazines and was the president of the Cambridge Footlights, a famous comedy group. He also appeared on the TV show University Challenge as the captain of his college team.
During one summer break, he worked at a circus to earn money for a trip to Italy. He met many interesting people at Cambridge, including the writer Germaine Greer. Clive James said he didn't read much of the required course material, but he read many other books. He still graduated with good grades and started working on a PhD about the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Amazing Career
Critic and Writer
Clive James became the television critic for The Observer newspaper in 1972 and stayed in that job until 1982. People like Mark Lawson said his reviews were "so funny it was dangerous to read while holding a hot drink." He could be very tough in his reviews. Some of his best TV reviews were published in books like Visions Before Midnight and On Television.
He also wrote about books and culture for many newspapers and magazines in Britain, Australia, and the United States. His essays appeared in places like The New York Review of Books and The Times Literary Supplement.
His first collection of literary essays was The Metropolitan Critic (1974). He published many more collections, including Cultural Amnesia (2007). This book contained short biographies of over 100 important people in modern culture, history, and politics. It was a book that supported humanism (a way of thinking that focuses on human values) and clear writing. The Village Voice newspaper listed it as one of the best books of 2007.
For many years, he also wrote a weekly TV review page for The Daily Telegraph newspaper.
Poet and Songwriter
Clive James published several books of poetry. These included Poem of the Year (1983), which was like a diary in verse, and The Book of My Enemy (2003).
He also wrote four long, funny poems that made fun of different things, like the media and the British royal family. He also wrote a long poem about his own life called The River in the Sky (2018).
In the 1970s, he worked with musician Pete Atkin and wrote lyrics for six albums of songs. They even went on tour together.
Years later, in the late 1990s, people became interested in their songs again. This led to the albums being re-released on CD and new live performances. They also released new albums of songs they had written together. Clive James said that the fans who helped bring attention back to his lyrics were a great blessing in his life.
In 2013, he published his own translation of Dante's famous poem, Divine Comedy. Australian critics liked his translation. The New York Times said it was good at capturing the slower, more thoughtful parts of Dante's poem.
Novelist and Memoirist
In 1980, Clive James published his first autobiography, Unreliable Memoirs. This book told the story of his early life in Australia and was reprinted over 100 times because it was so popular. He followed this with four more books about his life: Falling Towards England (1985) about his time in London, May Week Was in June (1990) about Cambridge, North Face of Soho (2006), and The Blaze of Obscurity (2009) about his TV career.
He also wrote four novels: Brilliant Creatures (1983), The Remake (1987), Brrm! Brrm! (1991), and The Silver Castle (1996).
An excerpt from Unreliable Memoirs was included in The New Oxford Book of English Prose. The critic John Carey even called Unreliable Memoirs one of the 50 most enjoyable books of the 20th century.
Television Star
Clive James started his TV career as a guest on various shows. He was a co-presenter on So It Goes, a pop music show. When the band Sex Pistols first appeared on TV, Clive James was there. He said he had to shout to keep them under control because they were so wild!
He later hosted the ITV show Clive James on Television. On this show, he would show funny or unusual TV programs from all over the world. A famous segment was about the Japanese game show Endurance. After moving to the BBC in 1988, he hosted similar shows called Saturday Night Clive (1989–1991) and Sunday Night Clive (1994).
In 1995, he started his own production company, Watchmaker Productions. He also hosted one of the first chat shows on Channel 4 and presented the BBC's "Review of the Year" programs, looking back at the 1980s and 1990s.
In the mid-1980s, James also made travel shows like Clive James in Las Vegas and Clive James's Postcard from Miami. He was also one of the first presenters on the BBC's The Late Show, where he led discussions.
His major documentary series Fame in the 20th Century (1993) explored the idea of "fame" throughout the 20th century. In this series, he showed how fame grew to become a global thing. He concluded by saying, "Achievement without fame can be a rewarding life, while fame without achievement is no life at all."
Clive James was also a big fan of motor racing. He presented the official Formula One season review videos in 1982, 1984, and 1986. He added his humor to these videos, making them popular with fans. He also hosted The Clive James Formula 1 Show for ITV in 1997.
He once summed up television by saying: "Anyone afraid of what he thinks television does to the world is probably just afraid of the world."
Radio and Online Work
In 2007, Clive James began presenting the BBC Radio 4 series A Point of View. In this program, he discussed various topics with a humorous touch. He talked about things like how the media shows torture and how companies change their names. Many of his broadcasts were nominated for awards.
In 2009, he read a radio version of his book The Blaze of Obscurity for BBC Radio 4. He also talked about World War II fighter planes on another radio show.
In 2011, the BBC released a podcast called A Point of View: Clive James, which included all his radio programs.
He also posted video conversations from his online show Talking in the Library. He talked with famous people like Ian McEwan and Cate Blanchett. His website also featured his own poetry and writing, as well as the works of other writers and artists.
Theatre Performances
In 2008, Clive James performed two shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Clive James in Conversation and Clive James in the Evening. He later took Clive James in the Evening on a tour around the UK in 2009.
Famous Sayings
Clive James was known for his witty and memorable comments:
- He described a revealing outfit worn by singer Cher as a "Dress-less Evening Strap."
- He said that Murray Walker, a motor-racing commentator, talked "as if his trousers are on fire."
- He described the voice of Greek singer Demis Roussos as "having the sound of a Chihuahua caught in a revolving Dalmatian."
- He also sometimes called the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat by the female name "Yasmin Arafat."
- He famously said, "Whoever called snooker 'chess with balls' was rude but right."
Awards and Recognition
Clive James received many honors for his work. In 1992, he was made a Member of the Order of Australia, and in 2013, he was promoted to Officer level. He was also appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2012 for his contributions to literature and media.
In 2003, he won the Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal for Literature. He also received special degrees from the Universities of Sydney and East Anglia. In 2008, he received a Special Award for Writing and Broadcasting from the judges of the Orwell Prize.
He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2010 and an Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he had studied. In 2015, he received a special award at the BAFTAs to celebrate his 50-year career. He also received the President's Medal from the British Academy in 2014.
Clive James is honored with a plaque on the Sydney Writers Walk in Australia. It includes a quote from his book Unreliable Memoirs about Sydney Harbour.
Personal Life
In 1968, Clive James married Prudence A. "Prue" Shaw in Cambridge. She was also Australian and had studied at the University of Sydney and University of Florence. Prue Shaw taught Italian language and literature at the University of Cambridge and University College London. She also wrote a book about Dante.
Clive and Prue had two daughters, one of whom is the artist Claerwen James. For most of his working life, Clive James divided his time between a flat in London and his family home in Cambridge.
Clive James could read several languages, including French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, and Japanese. He loved tango dancing and even traveled to Buenos Aires for lessons. He had a dance floor in his house!
He was a lifelong fan of the St. George Dragons rugby league team in Australia. He even presented an episode of The Footy Show in 2005.
Health and Death
In April 2011, Clive James confirmed that he was very ill with B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a type of cancer. He also had emphysema (a lung disease) and kidney failure. He said he was "near the end" in June 2012.
In September 2013, an interview with him called Clive James: The Kid from Kogarah was shown in Australia. In this interview, he talked about his illness and facing death. In 2014, he wrote a poem called "Japanese Maple" for The New Yorker, which was described as his "farewell poem."
In a BBC interview in March 2015, James said he was "near to death but thankful for life." In October 2015, he said he felt "embarrassment" that he was still alive thanks to new drug treatments.
Until June 2017, he wrote a weekly column for The Guardian newspaper called "Reports of My Death...".
Clive James passed away on 24 November 2019 at his home in Cambridge.
See also
In Spanish: Clive James para niños
- Clive James on Television
- Clive James's Postcard from...
