Time Out at 40

Clive James
One of the most influential critics of his generation, Clive James was born in Sydney in 1939. He has written for pretty much anything worth its ink (including Listener, the New Statesman, The Observer and Time Out), pioneered the ‘Postcard’ format of travel programmes, penned novels, poetry and television series. He retired from television to concentrate on his website, www.clivejames.com, and to focus on his poetry and memoirs.

You’ve been chosen as one of Time Out’s heroes, how do you feel about that?
Astonished.

What’s the biggest development in the media you’ve seen during your career?
Well nowadays it’s not employing me, that’s a big change. I used to more or less write it all back in the ’70s. There’s more of it, much more of it, it must be harder to start off. I don’t know how they do it actually.

What’s your favourite place to eat/drink?
There’s a coffee bar near my place called ‘The Café Nero’, I thought it was the only one.
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What’s your favourite place in Sydney?
Sydney's second-hand bookshops have been a big part of my life since I first haunted Tyrrell's Bookshop in George Street and bought my first slim volumes of modern poetry. Tyrrell's long ago moved to Crow's Nest, but in the current era the race is on between the Gleebooks second-hand branch in Glebe Point Road and Berkelouw Books in Oxford Street, Paddington, with Berkelouw's just taking the prize because of its excellent coffee shop.

What’s you’re favourite personal moment in London?
I’ve had nothing but favourite moments. I was doing a postcard programme about London for television and we went to the Royal Ballet School to watch the ballerinas warming up in the morning, and Prima Ballerina Alessandra Ferri was there. I watched her doing her bar exercises and I thought: that’s the most beautiful thing I’m ever going to see in my life. And that remains true to this day.

What’s the future of media?
It’s enormous. The real threat of the future is that there will be nothing but media. Everybody will work in it and there will be no one left to actually consume it. One of these days I’m going to read a newspaper instead of write it.

What does Time Out mean to you?
It means a lot. For one thing, I’ve always been drop dead envious of the whole enterprise. There were several listing mags around at the time it started, a lot of people had the same idea at once, but Tony got it right. It’s just indispensable. Being indispensable is a big secret in life.

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