image of person or book cover 5513327209322476690.jpg
This image has been sourced from online.
Unreliable Memoirs single work   autobiography   humour  
Is part of Unreliable Memoirs Clive James , 1980 series - author autobiography (number 1 in series)
Issue Details: First known date: 1980... 1980 Unreliable Memoirs
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Latest Issues

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The first volume of Clive James's autobiography.

''I was born in 1939. The other big event of that year was the outbreak of the Second World War, but for the moment, that did not affect me.'

'In the first instalment of Clive James's memoirs, we meet the young Clive, dressed in short trousers, and wrestling with the demands of school, various relatives and the occasional snake, in the suburbs of post-war Sydney. His adventures are hilarious, his recounting of them even more so, in this - the book that started it all...

''You can't put it down once started. Its addictive powers stun all normal, decent resistance within seconds. Not to be missed' Sunday Times

'"All that really needs to be said to recommend Unreliable Memoirs is that James writes exactly as he talks, which is all his millions of fans could wish" Evening Standard' (Publication summary)
 

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Jonathan Cape ,
      1980 .
      image of person or book cover 2621402243875339353.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 171p.
      Note/s:
      • Publication date January 1, 1980
      ISBN: 0224018256
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Picador ,
      1980 .
      image of person or book cover 5513327209322476690.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 175p.
      ISBN: 033026463X
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Pan ,
      1981 .
      image of person or book cover 8911797210770911348.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 174p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 1 January 1981
      ISBN: 033026463X
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Knopf ,
      1981 .
      image of person or book cover 6894184278954276595.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 171p.
      ISBN: 0394512634
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Always Unreliable : The Memoirs Clive James , London : Picador , 2001 Z946775 2001 selected work autobiography humour London : Picador , 2001 pg. 1-167
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      W. W. Norton ,
      2009 .
      image of person or book cover 697909348551560775.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 222p.p.
      ISBN: 9780393336085, 0393336085
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Folio Society ,
      2010 .
      image of person or book cover 3859419597781746072.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: xiii, 166p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Editor's note: This Folio Society edition is based on the first edition, with minor emendations.

    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Picador ,
      2015 .
      image of person or book cover 8642467567254944668.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: xiii, 184p.p.
      Edition info: Picador Classic ed.
      ISBN: 9781447275480, 1447275489

Other Formats

  • Large print.
  • Braille.
  • Sound recording.

Works about this Work

Helen Garner, Robert Hughes and the Mystery of Nonfiction Peter Craven , 2022 single work essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , December vol. 81 no. 4 2022; (p. 196-208)

'It's 45 years since Helen Garner published Monkey Grip and perhaps a while later that people realised how fine a writer she was. In 1997 there was that shock of recognition that someone had succeeded in re-creating inner-urban Melbourne, the 'aqua profunda' part of the Fitzroy pool, the tumult and tumbling from bed to bed of shared housing, the heartache of loving a junkie. The initial response to Monkey Grip was a response to a literary brave new world that was also the translation of something real. Indeed, there were critics such as the late Peter Pierce who said that Helen Garner had just talked dirty and called it realism. Yes, and along with this, there was the persistent accusation that she had simply published her diaries and served them up as fiction. This last point had come to seem like the most vulgar misprision by the time I wrote a full-dress defence of Garner in Judith Brett's Meanjin in the mid 1980s.' (Publication abstract)

The Perfect Chaos Theory P.J. O'Rourke , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 21-22 February 2015; (p. 30-31) The Age , 21 February 2015; (p. 34)

— Review of Unreliable Memoirs Clive James , 1980 single work autobiography
'Clive James crafted an extraordinary memoir 35 years ago that remains unique in a crowded genre. celebrates ‘‘the best memoir in the world’’.'
A One-Man Writers' Festival Peter Kirkpatrick , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Overland , Spring no. 204 2011; (p. 55-62)
Peter Kirkpatrick on the poetic ambitions of Clive James, celebrity.
Thinly Veiled Immodesty Rod Lockington , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: Dotlit : The Online Journal of Creative Writing , August vol. 4 no. 1 2003;

— Review of Unreliable Memoirs Clive James , 1980 single work autobiography
Culture Vulture 2001 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian Magazine , 19-20 May 2001; (p. 42)

— Review of Unreliable Memoirs Clive James , 1980 single work autobiography
Thinly Veiled Immodesty Rod Lockington , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: Dotlit : The Online Journal of Creative Writing , August vol. 4 no. 1 2003;

— Review of Unreliable Memoirs Clive James , 1980 single work autobiography
[Review] Unreliable Memoirs Cliff Gillam , 1980 single work review
— Appears in: Westerly , December vol. 25 no. 4 1980; (p. 86-88)

— Review of Unreliable Memoirs Clive James , 1980 single work autobiography
Culture Vulture 2001 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian Magazine , 19-20 May 2001; (p. 42)

— Review of Unreliable Memoirs Clive James , 1980 single work autobiography
The Perfect Chaos Theory P.J. O'Rourke , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 21-22 February 2015; (p. 30-31) The Age , 21 February 2015; (p. 34)

— Review of Unreliable Memoirs Clive James , 1980 single work autobiography
'Clive James crafted an extraordinary memoir 35 years ago that remains unique in a crowded genre. celebrates ‘‘the best memoir in the world’’.'
y separately published work icon A Text Response Guide to Clive James' Unreliable Memoirs Ballarat : Wizard Books , 1993 Z1612101 1993 single work criticism
A One-Man Writers' Festival Peter Kirkpatrick , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Overland , Spring no. 204 2011; (p. 55-62)
Peter Kirkpatrick on the poetic ambitions of Clive James, celebrity.
y separately published work icon 'An Ecstasy of Self-Consciousness' : The Clive James Phenomenon - Literary and Television Persona R. C. A. Leahy , Canberra : 1989 Z1845584 1989 single work thesis After examining several of James's autobiographical and fiction works, Leahy concludes that 'television is the medium that suits the Clive James phenomenon the best. It is on television that the mask looks and sounds the best, but where we rarely see the "unreliable" ventriloquist, only the dummy.'
The Kid from Kogarah Trudi McIntosh , 1980 single work biography criticism
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian Magazine , 28-29 June 1980; (p. 9-10)
My Life as a Joke: Comic Australian Autobiography David McCooey , 1996 single work criticism
— Appears in: Current Tensions : Proceedings of the 18th Annual Conference : 6 - 11 July 1996 1996; (p. 57-63)
Last amended 29 May 2024 13:55:18
Subjects:
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X