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        Pete Atkin >> Words >> Clive James becomes AO
        
(Message started by: Kevin Cryan on Today at 09:06)

Title: Clive James becomes AO
Post by Kevin Cryan on Today at 09:06

Australia Day 2013 Honours Lists (http://www.gg.gov.au/australia-day-2013-honours-lists)

On Saturday the 26^th of January Clive James became Officer in the Order of Australia (AO), adding to the Commander of the British Empire conferred by the Queen a year ago and a special career award in the NSW Premier's Literary Awards in December.

The citation (http://www.gg.gov.au/sites/default/files/files/honours/ad/ad2013/Media%20notes%20-%20AO%20%28final%29.pdf) reads:

Quote:

OFFICER (AO) IN THE GENERAL DIVISION OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA
Mr Clive JAMES AM, Cambridge, United Kingdom

For distinguished service to literature through contributions to cultural and intellectual heritage, particularly as a writer and poet.

Author of:
- A Point of View, 2011.
- The Revolt of the Pendulum: Essays 2005-2009, 2009.
- Opal Sunset: Selected Poems 1958-2009, 2009.
- The Blaze of Obscurity, 2009.
- Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts, 2007.
- North Face of Soho, 2006.
- The Meaning of Recognition: New Essays 2001-2005, 2005.
- Even as We Speak, 2004.
- The Book of My Enemy, 2003.
- The Silver Castle, 1996.
- Fame in the 20th Century, 1993.
Presenter, Talking in the Library internet show, 2001-2008.
Host, Clive James on Television, 1982-1988 and 1996-1997.
Host, The Clive James Show, 1995.
Presenter, Fame in the 20th Century, 1993.
Host, Clive James on the 90s.
Presenter, BBC Radio 4 series, A Point of View, 2007-2009.
Toured with Pete Atkin, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, 2001; United Kingdom, 2001, 2003 and 2005; and Australia and Hong Kong, 2004.
Fellow, The Royal Society of Literature, 2010.
Honorary Fellow, Pembroke College, University of Cambridge, UK.
Other awards/recognition include:
Appointed a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, 2012.
Award ($10,000), NSW Premier's Literary and History Awards, 2012; for his diverse writing achievements in poetry, novels, memoirs, scriptwriting and criticism.
Special Award for Writing and Broadcasting, Orwell Prize, UK, 2008.
Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal for Literature, Mildura Writers Festival, 2003.
Honorary Doctor of Letters, University of East Anglia, UK, 2006.
Honorary Doctor of Letters, University of Sydney, 1999.

Edited transcript of ABC Radio (Australia) broadcast..

ASHLEY HALL: The writer, poet and broadcaster Clive James has been recognised today with an AO. He's been sick and hasn't been able to travel to Australia to accept his honour.

Tony Eastley asked him about his health.

CLIVE JAMES: I know I don't sound too good at the moment, but I'm not bad. I've got about six different things wrong with me but I'm getting through the winter OK. I sort of live from day to day. And I'm getting a few things written. I write a television column every week for the Telegraph, and I even started - I wrote the first paragraph of volume six of my Unreliable Memoirs just the other day.

I've got a feeling this might be the last volume though, we mustn't be too optimistic.

TONY EASTLEY: Is Australia a short too far now for you?

CLIVE JAMES: I'm afraid so, it's physically quite difficult for me to get there because one of my conditions is a chest condition. It's called COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), which is the fancy name for emphysema. COPD sounds like it might be a television series starring Dennis Franz, doesn't it.

But it just means it's a chest condition and it leaves you short of oxygen. And there's just not enough oxygen on an airliner unless you take a tube of oxygen on with you. And I don't trust myself to do that, I'd lose it.

So I might be stuck here for a while if not for keeps. But I've got a lot Australian memories, and they're all going - the memories that I've got are all going to be there in volume six of Unreliable Memoirs I can promise you.

TONY EASTLEY: As I said before, you've been feted for your prolific body of work Clive James; is there any one or two pieces of work that you are particularly proud of?

CLIVE JAMES: I think I got an award from Australia, I'm very bad at remembering when things happen, but I think it was something like 20 years ago. And that was the AM, the Membership of the Order of Australia.

I think that had quite a lot to do with the fact that I was on television a lot, I was a face, whereas this award, the Officer of the Order of Australia, I think is probably more for my literary achievements, such as they are. And of course that's bound to please me more, and I'm very proud of it.

ASHLEY HALL: Clive James speaking to Tony Eastley. And Tony will have more of his interview with Clive James in AM on Monday.

Kevin Cryan