Flying visits: Postcards from the Observer, 1976-83 - Hardcover

James, Clive

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0224022121 ISBN 13: 9780224022125

Publisher: J. Cape, 1984

Synopsis

Clive James has never been able to conceal his passion for air travel. Before he attained long trousers he could identify every aircraft that rattled the crockery in his house near Kingsford Smith aerodrome near Sydney, and he spent his adolescence making himself indispensible to the cleaners who swept out the planes. James' original two 'Postcards' to the Observer recorded his first return to Sydney after fifteen years in Europe. After that, Postcards arrived from around the world and became a popular occasional feature in that newspaper. James has reported from the Caucus Room in Washington D. C., where the U. S. Attorney-General was being grilled by Strom Thrumond,, from an institute in Shanghai where Margaret Thatcher was being grilled on biochemistry by smiling Chinese scientist, and from a secret lakeside restaurant in America where Kiri Te Kanawa was being grilled by Clive James. We learn that women's hairstyles play an important part in the Soviet economy, that diving into the Dead Sea should be attempted only with the eyes shut, and that Los Angeles freeways distort time and space to a point where Disneyland, when you arrive there, seems like reality. Journalist, critic, television performer, poet and novelist, Clive James is also a master of the art of travelling. He conveys his curiosity for both the great event and the telling detail with irresistible with and vitality.

About this title

About the Author

Clive James was educated at Sydney University and Cambridge, where he was President of Footlights. In addition to his bestseller Unreliable Memoirs and his novel Brilliant Creatures, he has published four mock-epic poems, The Fate of Felicity Fark, Peregrine Prykke's Pilgrimage, Britannia Bright's Bewilderment and Charles Charming's Challenges; three books of literary criticism, The Metropolitan Critic, At the Pillars of Hercules and From the Land of Shadows; a book of verse letters, Fan-Mail, and a verse diary, Poem of the Year. Between 1972 and 1982 he was television critic for the Observer; the three volumes of selections from his column are entitled Visions Before Midnight, The Crystal Bucket and Glued to the Box. As a television performer he has appeared regularly in several series, most notably Cinema, Saturday Night People, Clive James on Television and The Late Clive James. His television documentaries include Paris Fashion Show and Live in Las Vegas.

From Publishers Weekly

Literate, brilliantly perceptive and witty, James's travel writing lays fair claim to S.J. Perelman's mantle. In this collection of James's London Observer pieces he describes his visits to his native Australia, Moscow, Japan, Salzburg and Jerusalem, and such U.S. sites as New York, Los Angeles, Washington and Epcot Center. There are also delightful entries on Margaret Thatchers visit to China, in which the Prime Minister is variously described as the War Leader, the Strong Woman, the Woman of Science and the Dragon Lady. James is devastating with similes (Arnold Schwarzenegger looks "like a brown condom full of walnuts") and trenchant in his observations ("Disney World is a vision without imagination"). A thorough pleasure.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: J. Cape
• Publication date: 1984
• ISBN 10: 0224022121
• ISBN 13: 9780224022125
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 180