| By Stephen Briggs Clive James spoke to an enthralled crowd at Oxford's Town Hall on Sunday afternoon. His talk was labelled as readings from his two latest oeuvres, 'Even As We Speak' and 'Reliable Essays'. He was born in Sydney in 1939, but he moved to England in 1962 and has lived here ever since. I first came across him when he was one of the presenters of the ITV film programme, 'Cinema', back in the mid-60s. He went on to carve out a substantial career as a TV presenter but he is also a respected journalist, critic, poet and author. His talk was primarily about the latter three elements of his career. Clive was erudite and witty, causing gales of laughter with his tales of sleeping in a brown paper bag during his early years in the UK. He went on to praise Shaw and Orwell as great critical essayists, recognising in particular the latter's courage in declaring Communism to be the equal of Nazism as a totalitarian regime, against the opinions of most of his artistic contemporaries. He was also a heated supporter of the poet Philip Larkin, recommending new students to ignore teachers' opinions of Larkin as misogynist and bigoted. His talk finished with a lively Q&A, with Clive very properly and politely refusing to be drawn on TV issues at a session in a literary festival. My companion, an eighteen year old who had heard of, but didn't know of, Clive James enjoyed the talk as much as I did. She was pleased that her own tutors' open minded view of Larkin was reflected by someone who knew him. I certainly came away determined to buy myself a copy of his three-part, though occasionally by his own admission inaccurate, autobiography.
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