Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Snakecharmers in Texas


Clive James

“This collection of essays brings the celebrated Jamesian wit to bear on a dazzingly diverse assembly of personalities, places and burning issues of the eighties. He tells of such wonders of the world as the Statue of Liberty and the Sydney Opera House, and visits the Nuremburg stadium littered with crushed Fanta can where the master race once assembled shoulder to brown-shirted shoulder. He reports on the Royal progress through the Californian heartland of Ron and Nancy’s USA and the invasion of Normandy by an ageing army of D-Day veterans out on an anniversary spree. He profiles Barry Manilow in “a detergent-blue suit with diamante trim” and Philip Larkin “wearing his Library Association tie” alongside the seductive Diana Cooper and the searing Bob Geldorf and in company with the frost-borne footwork of Torvill and Dean.” – book cover
Contact the library to request this book