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A Point of View
21st century Britain: a point of view from our fiercest and funniest critic The BBC Radio 4 series A Point of View has been on the air since 2007. Clive James was one of the most popular presenters, and now, for the first time, his original pieces -- sixty in total -- and all-new postscripts are collected together in one volume. Read along with Clive James as he offers his informative, thought-provoking and entertaining insights into everything from wheelie bins to plastic surgery, Elizabeth Hurley to the Olympics, Britain's Got Talent to Damien Hirst, Harry Potter to giving up smoking -- and plenty more besides.
460 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2011
17 people are currently reading
114 people want to read
About the author
Clive James
95 books289 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
An expatriate Australian broadcast personality and author of cultural criticism, memoir, fiction, travelogue and poetry. Translator of Dante.
An expatriate Australian broadcast personality and author of cultural criticism, memoir, fiction, travelogue and poetry. Translator of Dante.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
February 19, 2012
Clive James has always been a great commentator - his earlier TV shows which were hardly high brow stuff, were still razor sharp funny, but it was his series of "postcards" from various cities around the world that made me really admire him.
From there I found his "Unreliable Memoirs", being his autobiographies.
I saw this on the library shelf just as I was walking out having already checked out my books for the week - and had to pick it up.
Each short piece is a transcript from a radio series in which he presented a Point of View on a comtempary topic, and each piece is accompanied by a postscript with more current thoughts.
The pieces range from an oft referred to sceptiscm of climate change/ global warming, to the wasted talent of Amy Winehouse and what an atheist can take from the Xmas story.
Clive is a writer who never uses a bad phrase or a wasted word. He is the first writer that I've found to offer a sensible counterpoint to the climate-change debate (as opposed to a head-in-the-sand Republican denial). His politics generally lean leftwards but he is probably most scathing when he aims at many left-wing commentators who would prefer to see those they claim to be fighting for stay stuck in the Third World.
He is clearly an intellectual but does not make arty comments for the sake of it, or patronise his audience. All he asks is an open mind.
From there I found his "Unreliable Memoirs", being his autobiographies.
I saw this on the library shelf just as I was walking out having already checked out my books for the week - and had to pick it up.
Each short piece is a transcript from a radio series in which he presented a Point of View on a comtempary topic, and each piece is accompanied by a postscript with more current thoughts.
The pieces range from an oft referred to sceptiscm of climate change/ global warming, to the wasted talent of Amy Winehouse and what an atheist can take from the Xmas story.
Clive is a writer who never uses a bad phrase or a wasted word. He is the first writer that I've found to offer a sensible counterpoint to the climate-change debate (as opposed to a head-in-the-sand Republican denial). His politics generally lean leftwards but he is probably most scathing when he aims at many left-wing commentators who would prefer to see those they claim to be fighting for stay stuck in the Third World.
He is clearly an intellectual but does not make arty comments for the sake of it, or patronise his audience. All he asks is an open mind.
October 18, 2024
Clive James is a man of many talents - many more than most people are capable of having in the department of talents. Here he puts into written form the scripts of about 60 10-minute radio broadcasts delivered for the BBC over the period 2007-2009. These pieces are carefully considered views (more or less) on a very wide range of topics which, when you remember that 60 is a very big number in this context, is not easy.
To do so, he draws on the following: Experience, wit (sometimes charm), a strong sense of history (including amusing personal history), current affairs, and a highly rounded knowledge base particularly regarding literature, poetry, and journalism. Not many could venture into the minefield of possible ideas on a regular basis over 3 years and do so successfully in terms of holding an audience.
Many of the stories have a highly local (English) flavour - James's home-away-from-(his Australian)-home for many decades. To this extent, it does help to have reasonable knowledge of English events, including especially political ones, but it's not a deal breaker...and a little internet searching can always set the scene better if it comes to that for a particular story.
How does he go? Pretty well. Most of the stories are topical in a broad and useful sense, wherever in the English-speaking world you live. Wit holds many of the stories together even if the arguments are not always clear, or strong.
I'm a bit biased against Clive James though, I think. His status in Britain is near iconic, as it is in Australia because, as an Australian, he made such a name for himself overseas. (In that sense, his success feeds into Australians' sense of inferiority on the world stage). These feelings of (near) worship, however, aren't ones I share. I like his work but have never been enraptured by it (with the exception of his first autobiography, Unreliable Memoirs, which is very funny - sometimes hysterical).
The biggest downer of the book is his polemical, near-hysterical outbursts about global warming not being man-made. These are repeatedly stated both in the broadcasts (2007-2009) and in the postcripts inserted for publication (2011). Some historical perspective is perhaps needed here in that it might (I use "might" advisedly) be barely justifiable during this time period to hold a strong, cogent argument that it's all ballyhoo. But it's a real stretch, frankly.
In any event, he argues very poorly from start to finish on this issue: Personal attacks, consipracy theories about the press on a world scale, and retributive remarks about the science and scientists (many of whom he also claims are conspiring) are just not going to cut it. And it was so remarkably out of character with all the other discussions and arguments that he put together on so many topics that it was baffling to the point of embarrassing. James died in 2019. I'd really like to know if he remained, right to the end, as curmudgeonly on this issue as he shows in these broadcasts/book or if, in the light of the increasing avalanche of evidence, he was able to change his mind.
3 stars. If he'd avoided this topic, 4.
To do so, he draws on the following: Experience, wit (sometimes charm), a strong sense of history (including amusing personal history), current affairs, and a highly rounded knowledge base particularly regarding literature, poetry, and journalism. Not many could venture into the minefield of possible ideas on a regular basis over 3 years and do so successfully in terms of holding an audience.
Many of the stories have a highly local (English) flavour - James's home-away-from-(his Australian)-home for many decades. To this extent, it does help to have reasonable knowledge of English events, including especially political ones, but it's not a deal breaker...and a little internet searching can always set the scene better if it comes to that for a particular story.
How does he go? Pretty well. Most of the stories are topical in a broad and useful sense, wherever in the English-speaking world you live. Wit holds many of the stories together even if the arguments are not always clear, or strong.
I'm a bit biased against Clive James though, I think. His status in Britain is near iconic, as it is in Australia because, as an Australian, he made such a name for himself overseas. (In that sense, his success feeds into Australians' sense of inferiority on the world stage). These feelings of (near) worship, however, aren't ones I share. I like his work but have never been enraptured by it (with the exception of his first autobiography, Unreliable Memoirs, which is very funny - sometimes hysterical).
The biggest downer of the book is his polemical, near-hysterical outbursts about global warming not being man-made. These are repeatedly stated both in the broadcasts (2007-2009) and in the postcripts inserted for publication (2011). Some historical perspective is perhaps needed here in that it might (I use "might" advisedly) be barely justifiable during this time period to hold a strong, cogent argument that it's all ballyhoo. But it's a real stretch, frankly.
In any event, he argues very poorly from start to finish on this issue: Personal attacks, consipracy theories about the press on a world scale, and retributive remarks about the science and scientists (many of whom he also claims are conspiring) are just not going to cut it. And it was so remarkably out of character with all the other discussions and arguments that he put together on so many topics that it was baffling to the point of embarrassing. James died in 2019. I'd really like to know if he remained, right to the end, as curmudgeonly on this issue as he shows in these broadcasts/book or if, in the light of the increasing avalanche of evidence, he was able to change his mind.
3 stars. If he'd avoided this topic, 4.
September 4, 2013
He has a great turn of phrase and these radio talks are quite good. I was extremely disappointed and puzzled to read him repeatedly declare climate change as false, which has rather put a damper on my wanting to read more of his stuff. He seems to reject climate change as a social commentary, or a value judgement about having to revert to Stone Age living or an admission of western prosperity guilt. All of his points seem to be about sending up the relative spokespeople on the topic, criticising the media, and wearing his skeptic badge very proudly as a duty. On the next page he allows that wind turbines send people mad. His words on this are jarring compared to his usual powers of clear thinking.
March 4, 2025
Point taken
Some would say that Clive James has written his latest book the easy way: collate the scripts he's written for his presentations on BBC Radio 4's A Point Of View, add postscripts to clarify or revise his current thinking on these topics, and top & tail with an introduction and conclusion. You can see their point, if you're thinking about the enormous amount of work he must have put into the monumental (and indispensable) Cultural Amnesia but in fact, his modus operandi here is only a slight variation on the way he's assembled his other books (most recently The Revolt of the Pendulum: Essays 2005-2008The Revolt of the Pendulum ) as collections of essays and reviews. These pieces were written to be read aloud, although they work just as well on the page - in fact, speaking personally as one who loves James's writing but is less enamoured of his speaking voice, they're even better in that form.
Unlike his other collections, in which his erudition is given free rein, his subjects here are more everyday: wheelie bins, Harry Potter, bicycling and giving up smoking. A lot of them have (what were) current events as their starting point: MP's fiddled expenses, the preparations for the London Olympics, Prince Harry in Afghanistan. And some of them are his personal musings on disparate topics, the most remarkable piece being a thoughtful discussion about the character of Jesus (James does not describe himself as a Christian). One of his recurring themes is his personal inadequacy when it comes to organization or practical matters, especially - he says - in the eyes of his family: the standout contribution here is a riff on how bad he is at wrapping Christmas presents, and what that means for the gifts he gives. I found pieces like this, which include glimpses of his personal life, to be most touching in light of his current circumstances: just after broadcasting the final talk at the end of 2009, he was diagnosed with the first in a series of debilitating and serious illnesses, and it's impossible to read this collection without contemplating a day when there'll be no more to come.
So perhaps assembling this book the easy way was the right thing to do (although, on the other hand, he's just brought out a translation of The Divine Comedy which he says is the result of over forty years' work). An American commentator has said recently "When England loses Clive James, it'll be as if a plane has crashed with five or six of its best writers on board". This collection, easy to read, stimulating in opinion (even when it appears wrong-headed, such as his seemingly unjustified disbelief in man-made climate change) and sparkling with his characteristic literal tricks [e.g. "Like anyone in the vicinity of the City Hall building at any time, I am always on the lookout for something pleasant to look at instead. Ken Livingstone works in City Hall and I would almost rather look at him than look at his building." (p73)], provides further evidence for that generous tribute.
Originally reviewed 7 June 2013
Some would say that Clive James has written his latest book the easy way: collate the scripts he's written for his presentations on BBC Radio 4's A Point Of View, add postscripts to clarify or revise his current thinking on these topics, and top & tail with an introduction and conclusion. You can see their point, if you're thinking about the enormous amount of work he must have put into the monumental (and indispensable) Cultural Amnesia but in fact, his modus operandi here is only a slight variation on the way he's assembled his other books (most recently The Revolt of the Pendulum: Essays 2005-2008The Revolt of the Pendulum ) as collections of essays and reviews. These pieces were written to be read aloud, although they work just as well on the page - in fact, speaking personally as one who loves James's writing but is less enamoured of his speaking voice, they're even better in that form.
Unlike his other collections, in which his erudition is given free rein, his subjects here are more everyday: wheelie bins, Harry Potter, bicycling and giving up smoking. A lot of them have (what were) current events as their starting point: MP's fiddled expenses, the preparations for the London Olympics, Prince Harry in Afghanistan. And some of them are his personal musings on disparate topics, the most remarkable piece being a thoughtful discussion about the character of Jesus (James does not describe himself as a Christian). One of his recurring themes is his personal inadequacy when it comes to organization or practical matters, especially - he says - in the eyes of his family: the standout contribution here is a riff on how bad he is at wrapping Christmas presents, and what that means for the gifts he gives. I found pieces like this, which include glimpses of his personal life, to be most touching in light of his current circumstances: just after broadcasting the final talk at the end of 2009, he was diagnosed with the first in a series of debilitating and serious illnesses, and it's impossible to read this collection without contemplating a day when there'll be no more to come.
So perhaps assembling this book the easy way was the right thing to do (although, on the other hand, he's just brought out a translation of The Divine Comedy which he says is the result of over forty years' work). An American commentator has said recently "When England loses Clive James, it'll be as if a plane has crashed with five or six of its best writers on board". This collection, easy to read, stimulating in opinion (even when it appears wrong-headed, such as his seemingly unjustified disbelief in man-made climate change) and sparkling with his characteristic literal tricks [e.g. "Like anyone in the vicinity of the City Hall building at any time, I am always on the lookout for something pleasant to look at instead. Ken Livingstone works in City Hall and I would almost rather look at him than look at his building." (p73)], provides further evidence for that generous tribute.
Originally reviewed 7 June 2013
May 29, 2021
From 2007 to 2009 the acclaimed critical commentator Clive James made nearly 60 broadcasts on BBC Radio where he had (almost) free rein to muse, extrapolate and pontificate on any subject he saw fit. This book contains all those radio transcripts with the addition of usually beneficial postscripts.
It helps that Clive James was a thinker of quasi-Aristotle proportions with the added sparkle of a cheeky wit. It didn't help that he was uncomfortable to watch on his T.V. programs given his awkward demeanour and shit-eating grin. Let's just say that he was made for radio and print. He certainly packed a lot into his award-winning public life boasting every -ist known to man. Satirist, lyricist, humanist, multi-linguist, Leftist, dramatist, denialist and 'mainly pist'.
This particular tome of viewpoints doesn't really suffer from being 'so twelve years ago' because James had the innate ability to take you on a trip with his use of well-chosen words and witticisms even if you weren't up to speed with his subject. Some chapters are like an exciting train journey where he may at will drag you from the carriage out to some random village then meander back to the original destination.
Sometimes you may disagree entirely with his 'sermon' but his vast intellect usually has you concluding that he indeed has a valid point.
He tackles everything from wheelie bins to climate change and myriad celebrities in between. Sometimes riveting, sometimes poignant (Amy Winehouse), sometimes hilarious and often WTF!!?
While James was preparing his postscripts around 2010/11 he was diagnosed with leukaemia. Like Richard Strauss and his 'Four Last Songs' he faced his mortality with a serene dignity. Unlike Strauss, James nearly had time for a thousand 'Last Songs' owing to advancements in leukaemia treatment. It was typical that he kept apologising to the world for still being alive for a further eight years.
Given his poor health it was fitting that he gave his final shit-eating grin one month before Annus Horribilis descended upon the rest of us.
It helps that Clive James was a thinker of quasi-Aristotle proportions with the added sparkle of a cheeky wit. It didn't help that he was uncomfortable to watch on his T.V. programs given his awkward demeanour and shit-eating grin. Let's just say that he was made for radio and print. He certainly packed a lot into his award-winning public life boasting every -ist known to man. Satirist, lyricist, humanist, multi-linguist, Leftist, dramatist, denialist and 'mainly pist'.
This particular tome of viewpoints doesn't really suffer from being 'so twelve years ago' because James had the innate ability to take you on a trip with his use of well-chosen words and witticisms even if you weren't up to speed with his subject. Some chapters are like an exciting train journey where he may at will drag you from the carriage out to some random village then meander back to the original destination.
Sometimes you may disagree entirely with his 'sermon' but his vast intellect usually has you concluding that he indeed has a valid point.
He tackles everything from wheelie bins to climate change and myriad celebrities in between. Sometimes riveting, sometimes poignant (Amy Winehouse), sometimes hilarious and often WTF!!?
While James was preparing his postscripts around 2010/11 he was diagnosed with leukaemia. Like Richard Strauss and his 'Four Last Songs' he faced his mortality with a serene dignity. Unlike Strauss, James nearly had time for a thousand 'Last Songs' owing to advancements in leukaemia treatment. It was typical that he kept apologising to the world for still being alive for a further eight years.
Given his poor health it was fitting that he gave his final shit-eating grin one month before Annus Horribilis descended upon the rest of us.
September 21, 2024
The essays, whose topics range from culture to football to climate change to cane toads, are available on BBC Sounds (look for 2007-2009). Here, the essayist appends postscripts written with a few years' hindsight. They complement his criticism and memoir, and often contain jokes, some of them good. A Point of View, which evolved from Alistair Cooke's Letter From America, continues to this day, with none of the essayists matching James for wit and wisdom.
August 1, 2019
Interesting to read his views from 2007, my favourite quote was:
“The universe in which anything can be said is only a jump away from the universe in which nothing is worth hearing”
Slightly ironic reading his disbelief of global warming after we had the hottest day ever last week!
“The universe in which anything can be said is only a jump away from the universe in which nothing is worth hearing”
Slightly ironic reading his disbelief of global warming after we had the hottest day ever last week!
December 14, 2019
Wonderful writing! I could hear his voice as I read each episode with its characteristic tone of wonder at the human condition, and his own place in it. Like chatting with an old friend. I will miss him.
April 28, 2022
This is a delight, like the man himself. Often hilarious (be careful about reading mid-sip of anything), always incisive, intelligent and disarmingly honest. What a loss to the world was the death of this brilliant man - arguably one of Australia's richest exports.
December 25, 2017
I'm a big fan of Clive James. I love his conversational writing style but he is a polymath and so, so interesting on vast range of topics.
This is good for re-reading too.
This is good for re-reading too.
did-not-finish
July 1, 2024DNF 6%
March 5, 2018
Apart from his endless whinging about climate change being a con (one opinion piece about it would've been enough), this collection of radio essays by Clive James is a hugely enjoyable read.
June 24, 2018
In one sentence: Sometimes age actually does allow for wisdom to accumulate.
To be read when: whenever.
I came to liberalism late, after radical teens. By the time I found James, I was withering sick from years of people and books attacking the modern world, spending all their time reducing absolutely everything in life to its politics.
(Larkin is a great poet and was a terrible man, easy as that – but this tension is unbearable to some, who throw out his great work and try to shame those who don't.)
Clive James is the consummate droll liberal railing against both wings of partisans: he’s against celebrity culture, Ostalgie, and anti-American critical-theoretical cuteness, but also ‘clash of civilisation’ nonsense, socially destructive austerity and conservatism in the arts.
What others get out of Wodehouse or Rowling, I get from this grumpy old Australian’s stoic nonfiction. I had my notebook handy the whole way through, sieving out gold gobbets of late style.
His essays are a space beyond the culture war, where the personal is not usually political. He is one of the greatest living stylists, would deserve study for that alone.
His long essay on Isaiah Berlin is fantastic and contentious, and his retorts to the professional philosophers who come at him about it are devastating, inspiring.
Unlike say Geoff Dyer, to whom he is similar, James doesn't have academic standing. So his work is at risk of fading away, without their dull but chronic oxygen.
To be read when: whenever.
I came to liberalism late, after radical teens. By the time I found James, I was withering sick from years of people and books attacking the modern world, spending all their time reducing absolutely everything in life to its politics.
(Larkin is a great poet and was a terrible man, easy as that – but this tension is unbearable to some, who throw out his great work and try to shame those who don't.)
Clive James is the consummate droll liberal railing against both wings of partisans: he’s against celebrity culture, Ostalgie, and anti-American critical-theoretical cuteness, but also ‘clash of civilisation’ nonsense, socially destructive austerity and conservatism in the arts.
What others get out of Wodehouse or Rowling, I get from this grumpy old Australian’s stoic nonfiction. I had my notebook handy the whole way through, sieving out gold gobbets of late style.
His essays are a space beyond the culture war, where the personal is not usually political. He is one of the greatest living stylists, would deserve study for that alone.
His long essay on Isaiah Berlin is fantastic and contentious, and his retorts to the professional philosophers who come at him about it are devastating, inspiring.
Unlike say Geoff Dyer, to whom he is similar, James doesn't have academic standing. So his work is at risk of fading away, without their dull but chronic oxygen.
June 9, 2013
This was a Christmas present and I've been reading it on and off since then. It contains all of Clive James' contributions to the Radio 4 10 minute A Point of View strand, and so is ideal for picking up and reading at odd moments, or to provide a break between other, longer books. I've been a great fan of James's writing for some time, and his Cultural Amnesia is one of my all-time favourite books. This collection of A Point of View articles is a master class in the art of the short essay. While I don't agree with everything he has to say, he says it so well that one can only admire his mastery of the language, even while disputing his point. In an age of knee-jerk reactions and social media hysteria it is refreshing to be reminded of the art of rhetoric and reasoned debate by a master. The article on 'Feminism and Democracy' is one of many cases in point. Excellent and invaluable. C
December 22, 2013
Although very funny in places, I found myself getting a bit 'lost' in some of these pages, as James discussed topics, events and people that were very much UK-centric and so I was not familiar with them. I also felt his climate change denial quite frustrating but it would not have been so bad if he just discussed it once and did not keep harping on about it several times over during this course of this book.
September 7, 2014
My favourite writer/journalist/humourist/all round renaissance man bar none. This book is a collection of his Radio 4 talks and are as funny as his writing about TV and as insightful as his cultural criticism. If I had to take the collected works of one writer to a desert island it would be those of Clive James. The man is a genius.
June 12, 2018
I'll read anything by Clive James.
March 31, 2012
So many great lines to admire and envy.
October 6, 2013
Warm and witty, but would have been warmer and wittier without all the climate change debating.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews