The Meaning of Recognition: Essays 2001-2005

Clive James

dec. 2012 · Pan Macmillan

Om denne e-bog

With essays taking the reader from London to Bali, theatre to library and from election campaigns to television, The Meaning of Recognition collects the best of Clive James on art, culture and politics from 2001–2005.

Whether analysing Bing Crosby, Bruno Schulz or Shakespeare, celebrating The Sopranos and The West Wing, or lamenting the decline of Formula One, Clive James writes with style and substance, offering food for thought across a huge variety of subjects.

On Pushkin, Philip Roth, or the nature of celebrity, he is always sane, engaged and unmistakably himself. This collection shows Clive at his witty, learned and heartfelt best.

‘Clive James, the most glorious prose stylist of his generation, refuses to stop learning ever more about the world’ — New Statesman

'[Clive] can both get to the heart of a subject and raise a laugh' – Sunday Times

Clive James (1939–2019) was a broadcaster, critic, poet, memoirist and novelist. His much-loved, influential and hilarious television criticism is available both in individual volumes and collected in Clive James On Television. His encyclopaedic study of culture and politics in the twentieth century, Cultural Amnesia, remains perhaps the definitive embodiment of his wide-ranging talents as a critic.

Praise for Clive James:

'The perfect critic' – A.O. Scott, New York Times

'There can't be many writers of my generation who haven't been heavily influenced by Clive James' – Charlie Brooker

'A wonderfully witty and intelligent writer' – Verity Lambert

Om forfatteren

Clive James was the author of more than forty books. As well as essays, he published collections of literary and television criticism, travel writing, verse and novels, plus five volumes of autobiography, Unreliable Memoirs, Falling Towards England, May Week Was In June, North Face of Soho and The Blaze of Obscurity. As a television performer he appeared regularly for both the BBC and ITV, most notably as writer and presenter of the Postcard series of travel documentaries. He published several poetry collections, including the Sunday Times bestseller Sentenced to Life, and a translation of Dante’s The Divine Comedy, which was also a Sunday Times bestseller. 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. He held honorary doctorates from Sydney University and the University of East Anglia. In 2012 he was appointed CBE and in 2013, an Officer of the Order of Australia. He died in 2019.