SPEAKER: CLIVE JAMES

Clive James was born in Sydney in 1939. He was educated at The University of Sydney where he was literary editor of Honi Soit and wrote for various university magazines.

He was a contemporary of Germaine Greer and Robert Hughes.

After graduating he worked for a time for the Sydney Morning Herald before departing for England in 1962, where he has lived ever since.

Clive James attended Cambridge University and received a second degree. After that he earned his living as a journalist, poet, novelist and reviewer.

From 1972 to 1982 he was the respected television critic for The Observer.

He has published three volumes of these reviews: Visions Before Midnight, The Crystal Bucket, and Glued to the Box. In recent years he has appeared in a series of television programs examining modern culture and television.

James's most famous works form a three part autobiography (Unreliable Memoirs, Falling Towards England and May Week was in June), although strict adherence to the facts in these books is not James's strong point.