Unreliable Memoirs [Hardcover]

Clive James (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1981

‘Do not read this book in public. You will risk severe internal injuries from trying to suppress your laughter. What’s worse, you can’t put it down once started. Its addictive powers stun all normal, decent resistance within seconds. Not to be missed.’ Sunday Times ‘All that really needs to be said to recommend Unreliable Memoirs is that he writes exactly as he talks, which is all his millions of fans could wish.’ Valerie Grove, Evening Standard ‘Enormously funny . . . well up to best James standard. Buy it.’ Cosmopolitan ‘Of James’s jokes it is hard to find anything adequate to say. They are so funny that you had better not read the book on a train, unless you are unselfconscious about shrieking and snorting in public. They are vivid, cumulative and full of surprises.’ Observer ‘His public’s fun will consist of picturing their favourite wit and pundit, reduced in imagination to short-trouser size, wrestling with snakes and aunties and mutual-masturbators in the bush-bordering suburbs of post-war Sydney. These fancies are the more delicious for being called up in the familiar two-fisted prose. The old boy may be forty, but he times a punch-line disgustingly well.’ Russell Davies, Listener

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Do not read this book in public. You will risk severe internal injuries from trying to suppress your laughter. . . . What’s worse, you can’t put it down once started. Its addictive powers stun all normal decent resistance within seconds. Not to be missed.” --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

About the Author

Clive James is the author of more than thirty books. As well as his memoirs, he has published essays, literary and television criticism, travel writing, verse and novels. As a television performer he has appeared regularly for both the BBC and ITV, most notably as writer and presenter of the Postcard series of travel documentaries. He helped to found the independent television production company Watchmaker and the Internet enterprise Welcome Stranger, one of whose offshoots is a multimedia personal website, www.clivejames.com. 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.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 171 pages
• Publisher: Random House (1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394512634
• ISBN-13: 978-0394512631
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,475,161 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't read this in a public place!, March 31, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Unreliable Memoirs (Hardcover)

This would have to be the best offering from Clive James that I have read. His acerbic wit makes for great reading. I found this text on a bookshelf in a beach holiday house and was immediately captivated. I lost count of the amount of times that I not only laughed out loud, I snorted with appreciation and had to wipe tears from my eyes (much to the consternation of those around me) He captures the innocence of childhood with fleeting glimpses of maturity like no one has before, proving that he is not just a television presenter but a Rhodes Scholar to boot. If I could give this book more than 5 stars I would. It would be a shame to tell you more because this is a book that just has to be read to be believed!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heroic recollection of an Australian childhood, October 25, 2004

By 

T. Bently "tbently" (Berkshire, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unreliable Memoirs (Hardcover)

"Unreliable Memoirs" is Clive James' description of his upbringing in a Sydney suburb lasting up to the time of his university education. I was expecting it to be funny but wasn't quite prepared for the raw emotion and literary skill displayed on virtually every page.

To me this is the most impressive of James' autobiographical writing. He has a gift for describing childhood and a kind of relentless honesty which is hilarious and provides something of a turbulent rollercoaster ride for the reader, as he describes the trauma of being a single child to a single parent in the aftermath of the Second World War.

I felt a little left behind by many of the historical and literary references James makes but this is more than made up for by the relish with which he uses the English language. For example, he describes a friend's mother giving him buttered bread covered with hundreds and thousands as like "eating a slice of powdered rainbow".

"Unreliable Memoirs" made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end - I wish I had read it years ago.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Laugh until you cry, January 13, 2000

By 

D Campion (New Zealand) - See all my reviews

The imagery used in this story is the best I have read.

I could not put the book down and embarrassed myself by laughing out loud on the London Underground!

As a female with no brothers this book was an amusing insight into what goes on in (not so) little boys' minds.

Definately a must read book.