Read more
The Dreaming Swimmer is a collection of literary essays by poet and TV critic Clive James. ''He writes like a prophet and he can satirise folly in high places with a touch as elegant as Oscar Wilde . . . There isn''t a word wasted'' Daily Mail ''A well-balanced show of wit, intellect and glorious observation'' Sunday Times ''No one wields a joke more punchily than he does. And the wide capacity for warmth towards all sorts of experience - from Billy Connolly to Primo Levi - is impressively exemplary in our culturally divided and divisive times'' Observer ''Very funny . . . breathtakingly good literary essays. Mr James is excellent on television - when he is on it, or reviewing it'' Sunday Telegraph ''James''s hilarity is often a powerful support for his argument, but as well as vintage Jamesian japery there are many excellent things in this collection'' New Statesman & Society
About the author
Clive James was the author of more than forty books. As well as essays, he published collections of literary and television criticism, travel writing, verse and novels, plus five volumes of autobiography, Unreliable Memoirs, Falling Towards England, May Week Was In June, North Face of Soho and The Blaze of Obscurity. As a television performer he appeared regularly for both the BBC and ITV, most notably as writer and presenter of the Postcard series of travel documentaries. He published several poetry collections, including the Sunday Times bestseller Sentenced to Life, and a translation of Dante’s The Divine Comedy, which was also a Sunday Times bestseller. 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. He holds honorary doctorates from Sydney University and the University of East Anglia. In 2012 he was appointed CBE and in 2013, an Officer of the Order of Australia. He died in 2019.
