Latest Readings

"The literary judgments in Latest Readings are as a sound as ever . . . [James’s] credo: 'The critic should write to say not "look how much I’ve read" but "look at this, it’s wonderful."' I submit: reader, look at this book, it’s wonderful."—Philip Collins, Times

"Pick up Latest Readings. It’s wonderful."—Michael Dirda, Washington Post

"This is the kind of writing we have always appreciated him for: perceptive, acerbic, laconic, witty . . . There is so much to enjoy here, so many infectious enthusiasms."—Sue Gaisford, The Tablet

"His qualities are his capacious intelligence, sardonic voice and fondness for wordplay and paradox . . . James has approached the time of his vanishing with grace and good humour, not sentimentality or anger. These essays and poems are death-haunted but radiant with the felt experience of what it means to be alive, even when mortally sick, especially when mortally sick."—Jason Cowley, Financial Times

"For those who prefer something more literary, this year’s collection of Clive James’s essays on a variety of literary topics, Latest Readings, is an eye-opener. Mr. James is terminally ill. This is sanity, humor and acuity in the face of death."—Mary Beard, Wall Street Journal

"Latest Readings is a plain demonstration that Mr. James remains as learned and as funny as any critic on earth."—Dwight Garner, New York Times

“If the [Nobel Prize in Literature] were ever to go to a critic, I’d give it to Clive James. He has so much erudition and high-stepping passion. He writes excellent poems and even better memoirs. He has delivered very good books of translation. He is a polymath. He is also very funny.”—Dwight Garner, New York Times

"A collection of beautifully thought-out, piquant essays, some only a few pages, that survey what [James] has been reading with the clock ticking. The results are entirely free of self-pity, and emanate vitality and invention . . . James relishes the limited reading time he has and makes no bones about it, providing sparkling commentary on his old favorites and new discoveries."—Publishers Weekly

"With James, one hopes fervently that the finale is only just beginning."—Evening Standard


"The author delivers a sign-off of substance . . . The unadulterated love of literature proves infectious and a little humbling."—James Kidd, the Independent

"Of one military history [James] observes: 'The text is full of observation, judgement and accurate detail, and those things are always new.' The same might be said of this book."—Daniel Swift, The Spectator

". . . there is nothing boastful about James’s insatiable consumption . . . His observations on individual books are acute and sometimes challenging."—Rosemary Goring, Glasgow Herald

"His amused, unpretentious, loving commentaries on the books he continues to enjoy are heart-warming and comforting. The volume is a ringing endorsement of the solace of good literature."—Eilis Ni Dhuibhne, Irish Times

"As a reader and writer confronting death, Clive James has all the creative energy and charm of a man discovering life. These thoughtful essays are immensely appealing, their tone is beautifully judged. Cleverly, he re-reads in order to measure the past. With this and his recent poetry, he could outlive us all."—Ian McEwan

"Clive James is perhaps the most original and distinctive literary-critical voice of the last half-century."—Martin Amis

"Clive James, brilliant to the (near) end, turns his readings and re-readings of everyone and everything from Hemingway and Conrad to Patrick O'Brian and Game of Thrones into sharp, funny meditations on—among much else—class, beauty, mimicry, memory, manhood, death (other people's), and life (his own). Long may his dazzling, long farewell continue."—Salman Rushdie

"In these farewell marginal notes to a life of bookishness, enthusiasm and playful dissent, Clive James disdains to go gentle or regretfully into Dylan Thomas's good night. He retains his energetic piquancy as he makes one more round of the garden of literary delights. The comparison of one old favourite to a Cord automobile is a signature flourish entirely, typically, his own. We shall miss him, but that rare tone of voice will stay with us."—Frederic Raphael

"Clive James's inevitable humor, sanity, erudition, enthusiasm, and crystal keenness are everywhere evident in Latest Readings, but perhaps its greatest grace is the opportunity it gives to feel as if you're spending time in his company, listening and learning for at least a little while longer. If its mini essays (and some not so mini) seem to float from James's mind into yours, it is only because a lifetime of reading, thinking, feeling, and formulating has gone into them, registering the pure, responsive authority of a writer with nothing left to prove but so much left to say."—James Wolcott