Book description
Including his most memorable pieces - his 'Postcard from Rome', his
observations on Margaret Thatcher, his insights into Heaney, Larkin and
Orwell - this book also contains brilliantly funny examinations of
characters like Barry Humphries, as well as showcasing James's more
thoughtful, analytical side. From Germaine Greer to Marilyn Monroe, from
the nature of celebrity to German culpability for the Holocaust,
Reliable Essays is an unmissable collection from one of the best writers
of our time. 'He has widened the “tonal range” of criticism, permitting
it to be both sober and skittish, learned and lewd, rhetorically
rambunctious and epigrammatically concise . . . an intellectual as well
as a joker, a wise man as well as a wit' Peter Conrad, Observer 'His
writing is impeccably witty, flexible and urbane . . . immensely
enjoyable to read. It's a pleasure to see the metropolitan critic back
in action' Christopher Taylor, Sunday Telegraph 'He can both get to the
heart of a subject and raise a laugh' Nicholas Lezard, Sunday Times
Clive James is the author of more than twenty books, including
collections of essays, literary and television criticism, travel
writing, novels and verse, plus his famous 'unreliable memoirs'. 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.
