Celebrating Fifty Years of Picador Books

Collected here for the first time are the final two volumes of Clive James’s million-copy selling autobiographical ‘Unreliable Memoirs’ series: North Face of Soho and The Blaze of Obscurity. Newly married and graduated from the cloistered world of Cambridge academia, these volumes see Clive attempt to make his mark on Literary London, writing poems, plays, and criticism, brushing shoulders with the rich and famous, and fitfully attempting to secure a regular income.

True stardom, however, soon awaits on television, as the launch of Clive James on TV results in Clive becoming one of the most recognizable faces on British television in the 80s and 90s. We follow him as he interviews Hefner and Hepburn, sends ‘Postcards’ from Kenya, Shanghai, and Dallas, and – of course – delights in Margarita Pracatan’s unique cover versions of pop hits. Taking you behind the scenes of his years on television, and charting the course of his remarkable career, this is memoir-writing at its sharpest and most entertaining, and a fitting conclusion to a classic series.

The Complete Unreliable Memoirs: Volume Two is the culmination to one the most beloved and acclaimed series of memoirs of all time, from a true national treasure.

Other Clive James books available as part of the Picador Collection include The Complete Unreliable Memoirs: Volume One and Cultural Amnesia.