Clive James

What is it about Clive James that makes him at one and the same time likeable and rather tiresome? He is, of course, not only brilliant in everything he does but, what is more, he does everything. His versatility is extraordinary: essays, criticisms, novels, biographical sketches, poetry.....
Well, as to poetry I don't think the word "brilliant" comes readily to mind. Of one of his poems I think it was a poetry professor at Oxford who remarked: "Is this the worst poem ever written?"
I once wrote to Clive James about a piece he had written on the TV play "How Green was my Valley". He had given the production a good review. I compared it to the John Ford film version of it. He kindly wrote back to me thanking me for my letter but saying that he had less reverence for John Ford than I evidently did.
That told me something about him. I thought it showed a defect in his critical powers. Here was a very ordinary TV production and there was Ford's great film - with all its faults!
I feel there is in Clive James's work a lightness of touch that is given the impression of being deep by an ability with words to blind the reader to its superficiality.
Yet he was very influencial and was taken seriously by artists - actors, producers etc. - when he wrote television reviews for The Observer thirty or so years ago.
I recall meeting a member of a satirical group of performers who were quite well known many years back; I said to him: "your television show seems to be doing well." He said: "Actually we are waiting to see what Clive James thinks of it in his Sunday column."
They had a long wait. He never mentioned them. A couple of years went by and they disbanded.
Maybe they weren't good enough for him to bother with. And maybe they were too good for him to bother with.