Articles by James
Clive James has been presenting the BB4 "Point of View" program in the UK, the transcripts of which appear each week on the BBC News magazine website. His latest entries concern:
- electronic surveillance by governments
- legal rulings on compensation claims
- politicians pandering to perceived community interests
He has now been nominated for the Orwell Prize for this journalism.
Poetry
You can read the full text of James's poem "The Book of My Enemy has been Remaindered".
Lyrics by James, Music by Atkin
Back in the 1970s, James hooked up with musician Pete Atkin to produce six albums of songs. Copies of these albums are now selling for quite decent sums on eBay, so James and Atkin have got together to re-record some of the songs. The new release will be titled "Midnight Voices, the Clive James-Pete Atkin Songbook Vol 1".
James provides some extra background to the story in "The Guardian". You can also listen to one of the songs here.
Notes on Cultural Amnesia
The "reprising lothlorien" weblog has a look at James's essay on Sophie Scholl, who was executed by the Nazis in Munich in 1943 for being part of a resistance movement.
James makes the point that it is a great pity that Sophie Scholl is not as famous as Anne Frank, another miraculous young woman. He writes: "In addition to an image of how life can be affirmed by a helpless victim, we would have an image of how life can be affirmed by someone who didn't have to be a victim at all, but chose to be one because others were."Other
On the occasion of the 300th issue of "Australian Book Review", James writes an appreciation of the magazine. His piece is the third or fourth one down, after Kerryn Goldsworthy's.
Clive James's Wikipedia page is continually being added to and is starting to become quite comprehensive.
