Clive James reads his autobiography. An accident-prone child actor will stop at nothing to avoid school. From 2001.

Clive James reads his autobiography. An accident-prone child actor will stop at nothing to avoid school.

Australian-born Clive James reads the first volume of his autobiography, Unreliable Memoirs, exploring his life growing up from being an accident prone child actor who hated school, through to national service and a place at Sydney University.

Clive James - writer, broadcaster and poet - was known around the world for his dry wit. Born Vivian James in 1939, he moved to England in 1962 and rose to prominence as a literary critic and TV columnist. He went on to deliver wry commentary on international programming in such shows as Clive James On Television. The show saw him introduce amusing and off-beat TV clips from around the world, most famously from Japanese game show Endurance.

Diagnosed with leukaemia in 2010, the author and critic had movingly written about his terminal illness during the final years of his life. He died on 24th November at his home in Cambridge, where he had attended university and where his funeral took place at Pembroke College. He was 80 years old.

Unreliable Memoirs was first published in 1980.

It was abridged and produced by Jane Marshall, and read by Clive James.

A Jane Marshall production for BBC Radio 2 first broadcast in 2001.