#clive james

"Among artists without talent Marxism will always be popular, since it enables them to blame society for the fact that nobody wants to hear what they have to say."

-I remember seeing him somewhere and did take a liking to him.

Clive James, October 7, 1939 – November 24, 2019.

Devotees who say that À la recherche du temps perdu reminds them of a cathedral should be asked which cathedral they mean. It reminds me of a sandcastle that the tide reached before its obsessed constructor could finish it; but he knew that would happen, or else why build it on a beach?

Australia's greatest export? Well, Clive James certainly beats Skippy the Bush Kangaroo.

Not only a man that I wanted to have me from a very young age, but also, as I grew older, a man I would have liked to have had as a friend (sexual or not).

Poet, TV critic, writer, intellectual, broadcaster, journalist and professional Australian. He left Sydney in 1962 for Cambridge and (apart from visits) never went back.

He had an intense regard but also a ready wit and smile and a fantastic voice and broadcast delivery. Check out his "Postcard" travelogue series or "Clive James on TV".

A heavy smoker, not known for cigars, but there are a few (like this publicity still for "Postcard from Havana". No pipe or glove photos as far as I can find. Let me know if you spot any.