Books in the Unreliable Memoirs series

'Arriving in Cambridge on my first day as an undergraduate, I could see nothing except a cold white October mist. At the age of twenty-four I was a complete failure, with nothing to show for my life except a few poems nobody wanted to publish in book form.' Falling Towards England - the second volume of Clive James's Unreliable Memoirs - was meant to be the last. Thankfully, that's not the case. In 'Unreliable Memoirs III', May Week Was in June, Clive details his time at Cambridge, including film reviewing, writing poetry, falling in love (often), and marrying (once) during May Week - which was not only in June but also two weeks long . . .

In the closing pages of the last volume, I got married. The ceremony marked a rare outbreak of normality in my life. It was symbolized by my personal appearance. I was clean-shaven and had a hairstyle in reasonably close touch with my head. After Unreliable Memoirs, Falling Towards England and May Week Was In June comes the fourth instalment in Clive James's life. Taking us from Fleet Street to Clive James on TV, from Russian department stores to Paris fashion shows - via fatherhood, some killer bees, and a satire starring Anne Robinson as Mrs Thatcher - North Face of Soho is the larger-than-life story of a life lived to the full.Continue Clive's story with the last of his memoirs The Blaze of Obscurity.

I was never alone except in the toilet, where I soon found that locking myself into a cubicle was not much protection from hearing myself talked about by young men standing at urinals. ("e;Jesus, he's looking rough."e; "e;And it's only Monday."e;) Reviews for Clive James's fourth volume of memoirs, North Face of Soho, included several that specifically requested a further volume; Clive James duly obliged and here, in all its glory, is 'Unreliable Memoirs V', otherwise known as The Blaze of Obscurity. Perhaps his most brilliant memoir, The Blaze of Obscurity tells the inside story of his years in television: it shows Clive James on top form. 'In the case of many people who attempt an autobiography even a single volume is one too many . . . In the case of Clive James, the volumes now in existence are too few. If the final tally puts him up there with Marcel Proust, so much the better.' - Financial Times.

In the first volume of Clive James's autobiography, Unreliable Memoirs, we said farewell to our hero as he set sail from Sydney Harbour, bound for London, fame and fortune. Finding the first of these proved relatively simple; the second two less so. Undaunted, Clive moved into a bed and breakfast in a Swiss Cottage where he practised the Twist, anticipated poetical masterpieces and worried about his wardrobe . . .Falling Towards England is the entertaining and erudite second part in Clive James' life story, which he continues in May Week Was in June, North Face of Soho and The Blaze of Obscurity.