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Always Unreliable: Memoirs
 
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Always Unreliable: Memoirs (Paperback)

by Clive James (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
Price: £9.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Frequently Bought Together

Always Unreliable: Memoirs + North Face of Soho: Unreliable Memoirs Volume IV + Unreliable Memoirs: Autobiography (Picador Books)
Price For All Three: £21.77

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Product details

  • Paperback: 537 pages
  • Publisher: Picador; New edition edition (5 Mar 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0330418815
  • ISBN-13: 978-0330418812
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 13 x 3.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 105,126 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #97 in  Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Communication Studies > Media Studies

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Product Description

Product Description
All three volume of Clive James's sharp and funny autiobiography where first we meet the young Clive James - dressed in shorts and growing up in post-war Sydney. With "Falling Towards England", we find Clive living in a Swiss Cottage B&B, where he practises the Twist, anticipates poetical masterpieces he's yet to compose, and worries about his wardrobe. Finally "May Week was in June" sees Clive at Cambridge University, where he enthusiastically involves himself in college life (generally female lives) until May week - not only in June but also a fortnight long - when he gets married. The rest is history, or awaiting a fourth volume of memoirs.

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Always Unreliable: Memoirs
59% buy the item featured on this page:
Always Unreliable: Memoirs 4.5 out of 5 stars (4)
£9.99
Unreliable Memoirs: Autobiography (Picador Books)
12% buy
Unreliable Memoirs: Autobiography (Picador Books) 4.8 out of 5 stars (13)
£4.79
North Face of Soho: Unreliable Memoirs Volume IV
12% buy
North Face of Soho: Unreliable Memoirs Volume IV 3.7 out of 5 stars (6)
£6.99
Cultural Amnesia: Notes in the Margin of My Time
11% buy
Cultural Amnesia: Notes in the Margin of My Time 4.7 out of 5 stars (14)
£10.49
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Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
5 star:
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 (1)
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Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Completely unreliable, 31 Dec 2004
By L. Richardson "LR" (Hampshire) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Your perception of Clive James may be of him as a man who preceded Angus Deayton as the witty and erudite host of a range of travelogues and TV shows. If that is the extent of your knowledge of him, you're denying yourself a great pleasure.

This is not to say that his is a life worth knowing about. It isn't even his own life that you are presented with in Always Unreliable. It is, at best, a close proximation of the life he wishes to live. James frequently alludes to a dislocated sense and of wishing he were freer to choose his own course within that which he had chosen. He's written about an idealised version of the path he took.

These memoirs, though, are riddled with intelligence, eloquence, wit and a fine eye for the absurdities of the immigrant wanderer in a country which the displaced Australian finds strangely underdeveloped.

There is a strong sense of hurt and broken dreams in this - never more so when James is moved to describe the dreadful flooding in his beloved Florence. He does, in fact, spend a considerable length of time mourning: for his treatment of his mother, for her loss of her husband and James' father, for the few women in his life.

These volumes need time but you will frequently spot the turn of phrase for which James became famous. If your experience of reading these memoirs does not endear you to this singular man, you will surely grasp that here is one of the great Australian writers in rare form - self deprecation really suits him - and you will wish to read more of his startling, literary intellect.

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars highly recommended, 19 Oct 2005
By Dr. B. Heath (Uk) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
The first of these three volumes was included in the fifty most 'purely enjoyable' reads of the last century chosen by literary critic John Carey. On the basis of this I bought a copy of 'Always Unreliable' at the airport to read on the beach last year. I'm so glad I did; this book genuinely made my week in the sun very special and I more than agreed with Prof Carey's assessment. This is a wonderful book on many levels and something of a surprise to someone who's previous experience of Clive James was his TV shows. As you might expect its sharp and witty and in places hysterically funny, but its also very moving, very clever, amd very well written. Treat yourself.
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5.0 out of 5 stars HUGELY entertaining, 18 Aug 2008
By chris widgery (London) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I didn't grow up with Clive James. I was vaguely aware of him from the telly, but nothing more than that. And his life has not been that exciting - childhood in Australia before moving to England. Not, on the face of it, much cause for me to read this book (a collection of his assorted volumes of "unreliable memoirs")

But these memories are wonderful, and the telling even more so. Funny, touching, heartfelt and, more than anything, hugely readable and entertaining. Not a demanding book, but a very enjoyable one. Really, really good; highly recommended.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars The First Garry Bushell
Clive James was the in the 70s and 80s the best Television pundit in the world.
He was followed by Nina Myskow and then eclipsed bt Garry Bushell. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Fred Bookie

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