''He writes like a prophet and he can satirise folly in high places with a touch as elegant as Oscar Wilde ...There isn't a word wasted' Daily Mail 'A well-balanced show of wit, intellect and glorious observation' Sunday Times 'No one wields a joke more punchily than he does. And the wide capacity for warmth towards all sorts of experience - from Billy Connolly to Primo Levi - is impressively exemplary in our culturally divided and divisive times' Observer 'Very funny ...breathtakingly good literary essays. Mr James is excellent on television - when he is on it, or reviewing it' Sunday Telegraph 'James's hilarity is often a powerful support for his argument, but as well as vintage Jamesian japery there are many excellent things in this collection' New Statesman & Society'  (Publication summary)

'The reputation of Clive James as a poet was slow to form, perhaps because he was too famous as a star journalist and television entertainer. There was also the drawback that his poetry was so entertaining it was hard for many critics to take seriously. But after the notoriety achieved by a single self-satirizing poem, ‘The Book of My Enemy Has Been Remaindered’, one of the most anthologized poems of recent times, James’s poetic output became impossible to ignore, and his 1985 collection Other Passports was greeted with praise for its thematic scope and technical accomplishment, even by critics who still doubted his seriousness. Since then, James has emerged unarguably as one of the most prominent poets of his generation – and The Book of My Enemy (which includes Other Passports) shows why.' (Publication summary)