'The reputation of Clive James as a poet was slow to form, perhaps because he was too famous as a star journalist and television entertainer. There was also the drawback that his poetry was so entertaining it was hard for many critics to take seriously. But after the notoriety achieved by a single self-satirizing poem, ‘The Book of My Enemy Has Been Remaindered’, one of the most anthologized poems of recent times, James’s poetic output became impossible to ignore, and his 1985 collection Other Passports was greeted with praise for its thematic scope and technical accomplishment, even by critics who still doubted his seriousness. Since then, James has emerged unarguably as one of the most prominent poets of his generation – and The Book of My Enemy (which includes Other Passports) shows why.' (Publication summary)
London : Picador , 2003 pg. 77-78'Opal Sunset gathers together fifty years of Clive James’s poetry, and will undoubtedly enhance his reputation as one of the most versatile and accomplished of contemporary writers. Indeed – as with Other Passports, The Book of My Enemy and Angels Over Elsinore before it – Opal Sunset proves Clive James to be as well suited to the intense demands of the poetic form as he is to prose.
'Readers new to his verse will not be surprised to find him a master of the comic set-piece and surreal excursion, while those who are familiar with his previous collections will already be aware of his fluency and apparently effortless style, his technical skill and thematic scope. Ultimately, however, the highest recommendation one can give is that Clive James is, in these poems, unmistakably himself – an assured and dazzling wordsmith.' (Publication summary)