AustLit logo

AustLit

Unreliable Memoirs series - author   autobiography  
Issue Details: First known date: 1980... 1980 Unreliable Memoirs
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Includes

1
Unreliable Memoirs Clive James , London : Jonathan Cape , 1980 Z87923 1980 single work autobiography humour
— Appears in: Unreliable Memoirs. Falling Towards England. May Week Was in June 1992; 'The first volume of Clive James's autobiography.

''I was born in 1939. The other big event of that year was the outbreak of the Second World War, but for the moment, that did not affect me.'

'In the first instalment of Clive James's memoirs, we meet the young Clive, dressed in short trousers, and wrestling with the demands of school, various relatives and the occasional snake, in the suburbs of post-war Sydney. His adventures are hilarious, his recounting of them even more so, in this - the book that started it all...

''You can't put it down once started. Its addictive powers stun all normal, decent resistance within seconds. Not to be missed' Sunday Times

'"All that really needs to be said to recommend Unreliable Memoirs is that James writes exactly as he talks, which is all his millions of fans could wish" Evening Standard' (Publication summary)

 
2
y separately published work icon Falling Towards England : Unreliable Memoirs Continued Clive James , London : Jonathan Cape , 1985 Z237056 1985 single work autobiography humour
— Appears in: Unreliable Memoirs. Falling Towards England. May Week Was in June 1992;

'‘When we got off the ship in Southampton in that allegedly mild January of 1962 I had nothing to declare at customs except goose-pimples under my white nylon drip-dry shirt.’

'In the first volume of Unreliable Memoirs, we said farewell to our hero as he set sail from Sydney Harbour, bound for London, fame and fortune. Finding the first of these proved relatively simple; the second two less so. Undaunted, Clive moved into a bed and breakfast in a Swiss Cottage where he practised the Twist, anticipated poetical masterpieces and worried about his wardrobe.' (Publication summary)
3
y separately published work icon May Week Was in June : Unreliable Memoirs Continued Clive James , London : Jonathan Cape , 1990 Z796651 1990 single work autobiography humour
— Appears in: Unreliable Memoirs. Falling Towards England. May Week Was in June 1992;

''Arriving in Cambridge on my first day as an undergraduate, I could see nothing except a cold white October mist. At the age of twenty-four I was a complete failure, with nothing to show for my life except a few poems nobody wanted to publish in book form.'

'Falling Toward England - the second volume of Clive James's Unreliable Memoirs - was meant to be the last. Thankfully, that's not the case. In Unrelaible Memoirs III, Clive details his time at Cambridge, including film reviewing, writing poetry, falling in love (often), and marrying (once).' (Publication summary)
4
y separately published work icon North Face of Soho : Unreliable Memoirs Volume 1V Clive James , London : Picador , 2006 Z1321295 2006 single work autobiography 'At the very end of May Week Was in June, we left our hero sitting beside the River Cam one beautiful 1968 spring day, jotting down his thoughts in a journal. Newly married and about to leave the cloistered world of Cambridge academia for the racier, glossier life promised by Literary London, he was, so he informed his journal, reasonably satisfied. With his criticism beginning to appear in magazines and newspapers such as the New Statesman, and his poetry published in Carcanet, as well as a play then being performed to rave reviews at the Arts Theatre, James had good reason to be content. But what happened next? This is the question posed, and answered by, North Face of Soho. Intelligent, amusing and provocative - the words apply to the man himself as much as his memoirs'. (Publisher's blurb)
5
y separately published work icon The Blaze of Obscurity : Unreliable Memoirs V Clive James , Sydney : Picador , 2009 Z1616956 2009 single work autobiography

'For many people, Clive James will always be a TV presenter first and foremost, and a writer second - this despite the fact that his adventures with the written word took place before, during and after his time on the small screen. Nevertheless, for those who remember clips of Japanese endurance gameshows and Egyptian soap operas, Clive reinventing the news or interviewing Hefner and Hepburn, Polanski and Pavarotti, Clive's Postcards from Kenya, Shanghai and Dallas, or Clive James Racing Driver, Clive's rightful place does seem to be right there - on the box, in our homes, and almost one of the family.

'However you think of him, though, and whatever you remember him for, The Blaze of Obscurity is perhaps Clive's most brilliant book yet. Part Clive James on TV and part Clive James on TV, it tells the inside story of his years in television, shows Clive on top form both then and now, and proves - once and for all - that Clive has a way with words... whatever the medium.' (From the publisher's website.)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

First known date: 1980
VIEW PUBLICATION DETAILS FOR ALL VERSIONS ()

Works about this Work

Tall Poppy Syndrome Struck Our Brightest — but Clive James Seemed Exempt Virginia Trioli , 2019 single work column
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , November 2019;
The Red Frog Prince : A Fairytale About the Shifting Social Status of Sugar Toni Risson , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: TEXT : Special Issue Website Series , October no. 9 2010; 'Once upon a time, sugar was a magical substance in an ordinary world. When it became cheap and readily available in the mid-nineteenth century, sugar and sugar confectionery became part of the ordinary diet, and have since fallen to the status of junk food, and, more recently, poison. But children relate to lollies at the level of imagination, so lollies are a vital part of the wonder of childhood and retain for children the magical cultural status once attributed to them. Allen’s red jelly frogs are banned from school tuckshops, but they play a noble role in opening doors for youth chaplains during the notorious Schoolies Week. Furthermore, the humble lolly descends from the elaborate sugarwork that once featured in royal banquets; it was noble all along. Lollies are no longer on the menu, and they do not even fit into food categories, but judgements based on food value alone fail to take into account the magical role they play in children’s lives and ignore the ways in which health authorities, artists, and advertisers use confectionery. Lollies have more in common with fairytales than food. The Frog Prince—a fairytale about a royal son who is turned into an ugly frog by a wicked enchantress and then rescued through his relationship with a child—is a metaphor for red frog lollies. This paper examines red frogs as sites of transformation, thereby repositioning sugar confectionery as magic and challenging dominant narratives that reduce the complexity of lollies and their cultural significance.' (Author's abstract)
The Sheer Power of Limelight : Clive James's Undimmed Poetry and the Television Years Peter Craven , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December 2009 - January 2010 no. 317 2009; (p. 7-11)
The Sheer Power of Limelight : Clive James's Undimmed Poetry and the Television Years Peter Craven , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December 2009 - January 2010 no. 317 2009; (p. 7-11)
The Red Frog Prince : A Fairytale About the Shifting Social Status of Sugar Toni Risson , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: TEXT : Special Issue Website Series , October no. 9 2010; 'Once upon a time, sugar was a magical substance in an ordinary world. When it became cheap and readily available in the mid-nineteenth century, sugar and sugar confectionery became part of the ordinary diet, and have since fallen to the status of junk food, and, more recently, poison. But children relate to lollies at the level of imagination, so lollies are a vital part of the wonder of childhood and retain for children the magical cultural status once attributed to them. Allen’s red jelly frogs are banned from school tuckshops, but they play a noble role in opening doors for youth chaplains during the notorious Schoolies Week. Furthermore, the humble lolly descends from the elaborate sugarwork that once featured in royal banquets; it was noble all along. Lollies are no longer on the menu, and they do not even fit into food categories, but judgements based on food value alone fail to take into account the magical role they play in children’s lives and ignore the ways in which health authorities, artists, and advertisers use confectionery. Lollies have more in common with fairytales than food. The Frog Prince—a fairytale about a royal son who is turned into an ugly frog by a wicked enchantress and then rescued through his relationship with a child—is a metaphor for red frog lollies. This paper examines red frogs as sites of transformation, thereby repositioning sugar confectionery as magic and challenging dominant narratives that reduce the complexity of lollies and their cultural significance.' (Author's abstract)
Tall Poppy Syndrome Struck Our Brightest — but Clive James Seemed Exempt Virginia Trioli , 2019 single work column
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , November 2019;
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (3)
Last amended 18 Dec 2017 11:52:40
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X