Clive James(1939-2019)

Studied Civil Engineering at Sydney University. After graduating, he went to England to study at Cambridge University. While at Cambridge, he became a member of the prestigious Cambridge University Footlights Club and, later, President of the Footlights Club.

I had a great time as a critic. It was like writing a poem, actually. Writing a column and writing a poem are very similar. The essay and the poem are very close forms, you really, really try to pack it tight. And the column was packed tight. It had a joke paragraph and a serious paragraph. I write poems the same way; I think, "What comes next? How do I end this?"