Dazzlingly witty poet and TV host
Clive James Television critic and presenter BORN OCTOBER 7, 1939 – DIED NOVEMBER 24, 2019, AGED 80
CLIVE James’s at-times venomous humour didn’t stop him becoming one of the best-loved presenters on British TV. Fans of Clive James On Television enjoyed his laconic observations on life and the weird and wacky world of the small screen, particularly sadistic Japanese game shows.
He once memorably described Arnold Schwarzenegger as looking like a “condom full of walnuts”.
A friend to Prince Charles and Diana, he never allowed his rise through the social strata to colour his opinions of the world.
He was born in Sydney,Australia, in 1939 and attended Sydney University, where he was literary editor of student newspaper, Honi Soit, and also directed the annual Union Revue.
After a year as assistant editor of the magazine page of the Sydney Morning Herald, he sailed for England in late 1961.
Three years of would-be bohemian existence in London were followed by studies at Cambridge University, where he read for a further degree while contributing to undergraduate periodicals and rising to the presidency of Footlights.
His prominence attracted the attention of London literary editors, and his byline soon appeared in The Listener, the New Statesman, the Review and many other periodicals keen to tap into the erudite verve displayed in Varsity and the Cambridge Review.
Yet the article that made his name was anonymous. At the invitation of Ian Hamilton, who as well as editing The Review was assistant editor of the Times Literary Supplement, he was given several pages for a valedictory article about writer Edmund Wilson.
Called “The Metropolitan Critic”. The piece aroused widespread speculation as to its authorship: Graham Greene was one of
many who wrote to the editor asking for their congratulations to be passed on, and it became a point of honour in the literary world to know the writer’s identity.
James wrote four novels, several books of poetry and a collection of travel writings, Flying Visits.
During his long illness – he was diagnosed with leukaemia and emphysema in 2010 – he
increasingly focused on writing poetry, including Japanese Maple, regarded as his “farewell poem”.
James married scholar Prue Shaw in 1968, and they had two daughters, Claerwen and Lucinda. The end of his marriage, following his affair with a former model, pained him for many years.
He died at home in Cambridge, surrounded by family.