We now move on to the fourth part of Clive James’ “Unreliable
Memoirs” series. This volume spans the period of his life from the early 1970s
to the early 1980s, give or take a few choice flashbacks and flash-forwards.
Picking up from the end of the previous part we find James recently
married and starting a new family. He still lives in Cambridge but commutes to
an apartment in London to write. What his wife and children think about this arrangement
we never find out – he chooses not to flesh-out his family in the text, they
remain relative cyphers and mainly act as a motivation for him to make money.
We follow him as his writing becomes in demand in ‘Grub
Street’ - the collective term for the arts and culture media (as opposed to ‘Fleet
Street’ - the mainstream newspapers). He finds himself writing articles here
and there for various publications before landing a regular role as a radio
critic for The Listener…the only problem being that he never listens to
the radio. Somehow, he salvages the situation by being moved over to writing
about television instead. His TV criticism becomes popular and soon he’s poached
by The Observer newspaper. Even though he now has a regular income he
can’t resist taking on more work and there’s a litany of failures and missed
deadlines as he tries to make a bigger name for himself. A role as a TV
presenter on a programme about Cinema comes his way and he takes it on even
though it requires him to commute hundreds of miles to Manchester every week.
After failing to produce a biography about a contemporary
literary figure he presents a book of his collected writings to his publisher and
by some amazing luck they agree to publish it instead. The Observer renews
his contract and ask him to produce regular features as well – these soon turn
into the “Postcard from” travel series, a format he would later transfer to TV
with great success. More television work comes and goes – not always successful
and by the end of the decade he starts work on the first volume of his memoirs.
His publishers warn that nobody will read them as he’s ‘done nothing’ but are
as surprised as him when the first “Unreliable Memoirs” become a raging success
(and continues to sell strongly to this day).
All the way through, James presents a solid portrait of the
life and culture of the era. Fashion, food and the behind the scenes of the
media all are described by his dry wit and self-effacing humour. He still makes
stupid mistakes but you get the impression that he’s starting to learn his
lessons at last. Very enjoyable to read and primes you for the fifth and
unfortunately final part.
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