Book description
Taking us from Fleet Street to Clive James on TV, from Russian
department stores to Paris fashion shows - via fatherhood, some killer
bees, and a satire starring Anne Robinson as Mrs Thatcher - North Face
of Soho is the larger-than-life story of a life lived to the full. 'It's
not just that he writes a lot, but that he writes with intense
perfectionism, and delivers his gags with honed elegance' Sunday Times
'One of the most rewarding aspects of this exuberant work is James's
willingness to reveal the backstage mechanics of his professional life.
This book is enormously entertaining' Sunday Telegraph 'In the case of
many people who attempt an autobiography even a single volume is one too
many. In the case of Clive James the four volumes now in existence are
too few. If the final tally puts him up there with Marcel Proust, so
much the better' FT Magazine 'I feel I know more about the author after
reading it than I gleaned from all of his other books put together. This
is a book about hard-earned self-knowledge. What makes it funny is quite
how hard the self-knowledge was to earn' WILLIAM LEITH, Evening Standard
Clive James is the author of more than thirty books. As well as his
memoirs, he has published essays, collections of literary and
television criticism, travel writing, verse and novels. As a
television performer he has appeared regularly for both the BBC and
ITV, most notably as writer and presenter of the Postcard series of
travel documentaries. In 1992 he was made a Member of the Order of
Australia and in 2003 he was awarded the Philip Hodgins memorial medal
for literature.
