Clive James

Didn’t he declare his days numbered about 10 years ago?

Yes, but he then took up marathon running and has added years to his life expectancy

Born: 7 October 1939 (age 80 years), Kogarah, Australia

Does he cheat angoose wearing those sport billy shoes with springs in?

He famously described Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his bodybuilding days, as looking like "a brown condom full of walnuts".

He described the romantic novelist Barbara Cartland as having "Twin miracles of mascara, her eyes looked like the corpses of two small crows that had crashed into the white cliffs of Dover."

I was a postie many years ago, he gave me £50 as a tip at Christmas, he lived on The Barbican in EC2, a decent bloke.

Extremely witty, if you haven't read his Unreliable Memoirs, get down your local library and check it out.

always liked him, some of his interviews are priceless, TV gold

Yeah he had months to live about a Decade ago....Good on him though.

He is hanging in there ,a sharp mind and always enjoyed his programmes,didnt look like he had long left a few years back.

Unreliable Memoirs is a very funny book, and filled with insight too.

I loved his description of his National Service in Australia ("Nasho"), and how he came to understand the purpose of the endless drills and pettiness and abuse to which soldiers are subjected:

I could appreciate the psychology of it. The first task when training new recruits is to disabuse them of the notion that life is fair. Otherwise they will stand rooted to the spot when they first come up against people who are trying to kill them.

I always think of that passage when I keep reading of serving personnel who later get condemned or pursued through the courts for their actions. You can't have it both ways. Either a soldier reacts reflexively or is dead.

Always amused me

remember reading unreliable memoirs as a 13 or 14 year old, excellent book and very funny.

Good to hear he is still going strong

I assumed he was dead....happy birthday clive….great bloke

I like Clive. Happy birthday.

His memoirs or autobiographies or whatever are an absolute hoot!

I remember him saying that people were always disappointed when they met him to discover he wasn't very funny. He explained that his humour came from writing things out and taking his time to come up with humorous lines and that he wasn't an off the cuff type performer.

A great.

RIP Clive.

You'll be missed.

i really enjoyed his shows.

sad news today

A few years ago I was shopping in the m&s near Moorgate station & Clive James was in there feeling unwell.i helped him get a taxi to his flat in the Barbican.a few months later I saw him in the same store & he tried to pay for my shopping.a very nice man as well as a great talent.

a proper wordsmith.