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By
Stephen Briggs
Clive
James spoke to an enthralled crowd at Oxford's Town Hall on Sunday
afternoon. His talk was labelled as readings from his two latest
oeuvres, 'Even As We Speak' and 'Reliable Essays'.
He
was born in Sydney in 1939, but he moved to England in 1962 and
has lived here ever since. I first came across him when he was one
of the presenters of the ITV film programme, 'Cinema', back in the
mid-60s. He went on to carve out a substantial career as a TV presenter
but he is also a respected journalist, critic, poet and author.
His talk was primarily about the latter three elements of his career.
Clive
was erudite and witty, causing gales of laughter with his tales
of sleeping in a brown paper bag during his early years in the UK.
He went on to praise Shaw and Orwell as great critical essayists,
recognising in particular the latter's courage in declaring Communism
to be the equal of Nazism as a totalitarian regime, against the
opinions of most of his artistic contemporaries. He was also a heated
supporter of the poet Philip Larkin, recommending new students to
ignore teachers' opinions of Larkin as misogynist and bigoted.
His
talk finished with a lively Q&A, with Clive very properly and
politely refusing to be drawn on TV issues at a session in a literary
festival.
My
companion, an eighteen year old who had heard of, but didn't know
of, Clive James enjoyed the talk as much as I did. She was pleased
that her own tutors' open minded view of Larkin was reflected by
someone who knew him. I certainly came away determined to buy myself
a copy of his three-part, though occasionally by his own admission
inaccurate, autobiography.
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