Five Years Ago
Clive James on "The Good of a Bad Review" in "The New York Times" (7 Sept, 2003): "Adverse book reviews there have always been, and always should be, lest a tide of good intentions rise to drown us all in worthy sludge. At their best, they are written in defense of a value, and in the tacit hope that the author, having had his transgressions pointed out, might secretly agree that his book is indeed lousy. All they attack, or seem to attack, is the book. But a snark blatantly attacks the author -- not simply to retard his career but to advance the reviewer's, either by proving how clever he is or simply by injuring a competitor. Since a good book can certainly be injured by a bad review, especially if the critic is in a position of influence, the distinction between the snark and the legitimately destructive review is well worth having."
Ten Years Ago
James spends 200,000 UKP to build himself a ballroom in his London apartment - "Sunday Mirror, 11 Oct 1998.
Other
It is possible to get inspiration for poetry from the most unlikely sources.
James will be at the Edinburgh Festival with his show "Clive James in the Evening", Aug 19-24, Assembly @ Queen's Hall. "The Times" newspaper lists it as one of the 50 "Shows It Would be a Crime to Miss".
Adrian Bregazzi gets stuck into James, on the weblog "Suddenness May Happen", concerning his treatment of Borges in Cultural Amnesia. "The Spotsyltuckian" weblog sees James's latest book as a means to an end: "In Cultural Amnesia, Clive James presents a hundred short biographies, which are anything but compendiums of births, degrees earned, accomplishments made; they are, instead, ruminations which compel a reader to follow the most intriguing clues -"
