Just omit those 'dull bits'

 

“Fiction is life with the dull bits left out.” – Clive James

 

Born in Australia on this date in 1939, James was an author, critic, broadcaster, poet and humorist who lived and worked in Great Britain most of his adult life. James broke into the writing world in the 1970s as a television critic for The Observer and gained a wide reading audience with his autobiographical series Unreliable Memoirs.  First published in 1980, the acclaimed series, also published as a book, provided terrific biographical sketches of many of the 20th century’s most famous figures.

 

James wrote 5 memoirs, 4 novels and 10 poetry collections – including The Book of My Enemy, a volume that takes its title from his earlier humorous poem "The Book of My Enemy Has Been Remaindered” (a term used in bookselling to put books in a bargain basement bin).

 

He also wrote a well-received translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy and penned 7 “Epic” poems, the last “The River in the Sky” released just months before his death in 2019.

 

Humor, James said, is an essential part of every writer’s arsenal.  “Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds.  A sense of humor is just common sense . . . dancing.”