Book description
Opal Sunset
gathers together fifty years of Clive James’s poetry, and will
undoubtedly enhance his reputation as one of the most versatile and
accomplished of contemporary writers. Indeed - as with Other Passports
, The Book of my Enemy
and Angels Over Elsinore
before it - Opal Sunset
proves Clive James to be as well suited to the intense demands of the
poetic form as he is to prose.
Readers new to his verse will not be surprised to find him a master of
the comic set-piece and surreal excursion, while those who are familiar
with his previous collections will already be aware of his fluency and
apparently effortless style, his technical skill and thematic scope.
Ultimately, however, the highest recommendation one can give is that
Clive James is, in these poems, unmistakably himself - an assured and
dazzling wordsmith.
Praise for Clive James:
‘Satiric, scathing at times, and keenly attuned to the frivolities of
the day. Opal Sunset
is a generous helping of his very best, guaranteed to lift the spirit
and raise the eyebrow’ Billy Collins
‘James is an absolute master of surface, and the great critic of
surfaces, not because he is superficial but because he believes that the
distortions on the surface tell you what’s underneath. His simplicity
isn’t simple and his clarity has depth’ Julian Gough, Prospect
Clive James is the author of more than thirty books. As well as verse
and novels, he has published collections of essays, literary criticism,
television criticism and travel writing, plus four volumes of
autobiography including, most recently, North Face of Soho
. 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.
