Product Description

Well-known for his prose, as well as his TV appearances, Clive James has also established a name for himself in the world of poetry. His previous collections, Other Passports and The Book of My Enemy, were critically acclaimed and accomplished, yet simultaneously accessible and entertaining -- and his new book promises more of the same. Bringing together poems written over the last five years, Angels over Elsinore is impressive not only in terms of its execution, but also in terms of its scope and versatility.

Praise for The Book of My Enemy

'James writes with exquisite perception and surgical precision; he is a poet of powerful argument and emotional force' The Times

'Page after page of The Book of My Enemy confirms James has the primary, sine qua non gifts of a poet' Sunday Telegraph

'Reading these poems is like listening to a talking book, with that familiar braggadocio, that strictly upbeat delivery, insight, timing and agreeable passion' Independent

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #68239 in Books
• Published on: 2008-11-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Review
'Touching, elegant and insightful, James's skilful turn of phrase is deceptively easy and his love of language evident.' --The Manchester Evening News

About the Author

Clive James is the author of more than thirty books. As well as verse and novels, he has published collections of essays, literary criticism, television criticism and travel writing, plus four volumes of autobiography including, most recently, North Face of Soho. 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.

Customer Reviews

Nice short collection
Besides his literary criticism, novels, autobiography, lyrics and TV work, Clive James has also produced an impressive amount of poetry. It's a field in which he's been toiling for some time, making use of a variety of forms: thus, his previous collection, The Book of My Enemy, contains examples of every style from short, jewel-like, pieces to parodies, lengthy verse letters and mock epics. Since its publication in 2003, he's been putting out new poems on his website, and this new collection contains almost everything he's produced in that period. It's a much slimmer volume than "The Book Of My Enemy", partly because it covers a briefer period, but mainly because he's concentrating here on shorter forms.

Since I find the shorter pieces easier to read, this is a step in the right direction. Apart from that quantitative observation, I don't really know enough about poetry to comment authoritatively - though a review on the dust jacket notes that "The poems here have skip, insights, timing and agreeable passion" (which looks a bit clumsy to me, but the reviewer is doubtless more familiar with poetry than I am). However, I greatly enjoyed reading them, and appreciated the way in which many of them use apparently unpromising ideas (a statement from Donald Rumsfeld, the genitals of the blue whale, a painting) as their inspiration, and make them into something interesting. One of my favourites here is "Museum of the Unmoving Image", a conceit that turns a survey of trite figures of speech into an appeal for renewed vividness. But the most popular is likely to be "Windows Is Shutting Down", which is about - well, just look at that title, and try and guess what a poet could extract from a message which we've seen thousands of times without ever really noticing it.