Writers Rooms: Clive James

Eamonn McCabe's Writers Rooms is a guilty pleasure. This week is Clive James. A few months ago, the subject of James' A Point of View radio-talk was McCabe's Writers Room series. The chaos of the room he described in his talk bears no relation to the room we see, which he nevertheless insists on describing as a mess despite all evidence to the contrary. The room is here; the talk here.

Clive James is an essayist, poet, novelist, television presenter. I'm not a big fan of his television programmes (always too ingratiating to people too naff), I've never read his novels (and I can't forsee doing so) and the less said about his poetry the better. But his essays are something on an inspiration to me. In 2006, I borrowed from Middlesbrough Library Services his best-of collection, Reliable Essays, for which I would have incurred an absolutely horrendous overdue fine had I not managed to happen upon a Book Amnesty Week on the day I sheepishly returned the book. In the two years since, I've been accumulating from second-hand shops and internet marketplaces the seven collections from which the best-of was nabbed (finding, as you do, that the best were not necessarily in the best-of): The Metropolitan Critic (1974), At the Pillars of Hecules (1979), From the Land of Shadows (1982), Snakecharmers in Texas (1988), The Dreaming Swimmer (1992), Even As We Speak (2001), The Meaning of Recognition (2005). I've listed for no other reason than to evidence his knack for naming his books. His next anthology, Revolt of the Pendulum, will be published next month. I'm hoping to review it.

In the mean time, I recommend you go to Amazon, where you can very cheaply buy a copy of Reliable Essays, which his superlative mammoth review of 'The Collected George Orwell' for the New Yorker and a collection of his essays on Larkin from over the years.

Or at least go to his website, where you can find a mass of things that he has produced along with bits and pieces from others that he's put on show.