Book description
Clive James' power as a poet has increased year by year, and there has
been no stronger evidence for this than Nefertiti in the Flak Tower.
Here, his polymathic learning and technical virtuosity are worn more
lightly than ever; the effect is merely to produce a deep sense of trust
into which the reader gratefully sinks, knowing they are in the presence
of a master. The most obvious token of that mastery is the book's
breathtaking range of theme: there are moving elegies, a meditation on
the later Yeats, a Hollywood Iliad, odes to rare orchids, wartime
typewriters and sharks - as well as a poem on the fate of Queen
Nefertiti in Nazi Germany. But despite the dizzying variety, James'
poetic intention becomes increasingly clear: what marks this new
collection out is his intensified concentration on the individual poem
as self-contained universe. Poetry is a practice he compares (in
'Numismatics') to striking new coin; and Nefertiti in the Flak Tower is
a treasure-chest of one-off marvels, with each poem a twin-sided,
perfect human balance of the unashamedly joyous and the deadly serious,
'whose play of light pays tribute to the dark'. Praise for Angels Over
Elsinore: 'The new poems again apply faultless technique to subject
matter that ranges in weight from helium to promethium . . . These poems
are dazzling' Prospect 'There is a casually rich mix of cultural
allusions, but the most important quality is complete clarity'
Independent
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.
