‘Unique’ and ‘irreplaceable’
Clive James dies at 80
Author, critic and broadcaster Clive James has died at the age of 80, one month after laying down his pen for the last time.
The Australian-born star of The Clive James Show was diagnosed with leukaemia, kidney failure and lung disease in 2010 and over the years wrote and updated his own obituary.
He died at home in Cambridge on 24 November and a private funeral attended by family and close friends took place in the chapel at Pembroke College, Cambridge on Wednesday.
A statement on behalf of his family, released by his agents, said: “Clive died almost ten years after his first terminal diagnosis, and one month after he laid down his pen for the last time.
“He endured his ever-multiplying illnesses with patience and good humour, knowing until the last moment that he had experienced more than his fair share of this ‘great, good world’.”
James became the television critic for The Observer in 1972 and selections from his column, which he wrote for more than ten years, were published in three books.
He ventured into memoir in 1980, when he published the first book of his autobiography and it was followed by four other volumes, as well as four novels.
He found fame on television as the host of Clive James On Television, Saturday Night Clive and The Clive James Show and he fronted the BBC’S Review Of The Year programmes in the late 1980s.
During his long illness he increasingly focused on writing poetry. He spent the spring and summer of 2019 writing and editing an autobiographical anthology called The Fire Of Joy, which he finished a month before his death. It will be published in 2020.
Among those paying tribute was Monty Python star Eric Idle, who also referenced the death of Sir Jonathan Miller, which was also announced on Wednesday.
Idle tweeted: “Savage news this morning. To lose one friend is bad but to lose two reeks of carelessness. The beloved hilarious genius Jonathan Miller who dramatically changed my life three times, and dear Clive James my pal at Cambridge.”
BBC director-general Lord Tony Hall said James was “a clever, witty and thought-provoking broadcaster. He had a huge range of talents and everything he did was essential listening or viewing. He is irreplaceable”.
Actor and theatre director Samuel West tweeted: “We were lucky to have him for so long after his diagnosis.
“We were lucky to have him at all.”