Book description
Illuminating, insightful, informed, inspired, intelligent. These are
words that could - and do - apply equally to book or author; in fact,
The Revolt of the Pendulum, Clive James's latest essay collection, shows
James at his most dazzling and versatile best yet. From the rules of
grammar to the fundamentals of religion, from the culture of fandom to
the cult of the critic, it's all there: his customary wit, learning and
understanding; his precise way with words and pointed comments; his ear
for language and eye for detail; his ability to focus on the finer
points and the bigger picture simultaneously - not to mention the sheer
scope of his subject matter. Praise for Clive James: 'Lively, shrewd and
resourceful, James's writing is impeccably fluent, flexible and urbane:
parodies, jokes and slang sit comfortably with moral and political
arguments, lightly-worn erudition and scrupulously close readings of
poetry and prose' Sunday Telegraph 'Sober and skittish, learned and
lewd, rhetorically rambunctious and epigrammatically concise; Clive
James is an intellectual as well as a joker, a wise man as well as a
wit' Observer
Clive James is the author of more than thirty books, including five
volumes of autobiography, Unreliable Memoirs, Falling
Towards England, May Week was in June, North Face of
Soho and The Blaze of Obscurity. 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.
