An expatriate Australian broadcast personality and author of cultural criticism, memoir, fiction, travelogue and poetry. Translator of Dante.
Books in order of publication:
| Visions Before Midnight | 1977 |
| Unreliable Memoirs (Unreliable Memoirs # 1) | 1980 |
| The Crystal Bucket: Television Criticism from “The Observer,” 1976-79 | 1981 |
| Glued to the Box: Television Criticism from The Observer, 1979–82 | 1982 |
| Brilliant Creatures | 1983 |
| Falling Towards England (Unreliable Memoirs # 2) | 1985 |
| Flying Visits: Postcards From The Observer 1976-83 (Picador Books) | 1985 |
| Snakecharmers in Texas | 1988 |
| May Week Was in June (Unreliable Memoirs # 3) | 1990 |
| Brrm! Brrm! | 1991 |
| Clive James on Television: Criticism from the Observer, 1972–1982 | 1991 |
| The Silver Castle | 1996 |
| Reliable Essays: The Best of Clive James | 2001 |
| Even As We Speak: New Essays 1993-2001 | 2001 |
| As of This Writing: The Essential Essays, 1968-2002 | 2003 |
| The Meaning of Recognition | 2005 |
| North Face of Soho (Unreliable Memoirs # 4) | 2006 |
| Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts | 2007 |
| Opal Sunset: Selected Poems, 1958-2008 | 2008 |
| The Blaze of Obscurity (Unreliable Memoirs #5) | 2009 |
| The Revolt of the Pendulum: Essays 2005-2008 | 2009 |
| A Point of View | 2011 |
| Nefertiti in the Flak Tower: Poems | 2012 |
| Cultural Cohesion: The Essential Essays | 2013 |
| The Divine Comedy | 2013 |
| Poetry Notebook: 2006–2014 | 2014 |
| Latest Readings | 2015 |
| Inferno | 2015 |
| Sentenced to Life: Poems | 2015 |
| Poetry Notebook: Reflections on the Intensity of Language | 2015 |
| Play All: A Bingewatcher’s Notebook | 2016 |
| Injury Time | 2017 |
| The River in the Sky | 2018 |
| Somewhere Becoming Rain: Collected Writings on Philip Larkin | 2019 |
