{{Short description|1980 memoir by Clive James}} {{Infobox book | italic title = <!--(see above)--> | name = Unreliable Memoirs | image = Unreliable Memoirs Picador front cover from clivejamesdotcom.png | caption = | border = yes | image_size = | alt = | author = [[Clive James]] | audio_read_by = | title_orig = | orig_lang_code = | title_working = | translator = | illustrator = | cover_artist = | country = | language = | series = | release_number = | subject = | genre = | set_in = | publisher = [[Jonathan Cape]] | publisher2 = | pub_date = 1980 | english_pub_date = | published = | media_type = | pages = | awards = | isbn = 0224018256 | isbn_note = | oclc = | dewey = | congress = | preceded_by = | followed_by = [[Falling Towards England]] | native_wikisource = | wikisource = | notes = | exclude_cover = | website = }} '''''Unreliable Memoirs''''' is a [[memoir]] by Australian writer [[Clive James]] published in 1980 by [[Jonathan Cape]]<ref name="National Library of Australia - Unreliable memoirs / Clive James">{{cite web |title=Unreliable memoirs / Clive James |url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2916509 |website=[[National Library of Australia]] |access-date=31 October 2021 |archive-date=31 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211031012906/https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2916509 |url-status=live }}</ref> The book was a [[bestseller]], and the first of a series of autobiographical works.<ref name="The Guardian - 5 July 2013 - Clive James – a life in writing">{{cite news |last1=Robert McCrum |title=Clive James – a life in writing |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jul/05/clive-james-dante-translation |access-date=31 October 2021 |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=5 July 2013 |author1-link=Robert McCrum }}</ref>
It was followed by ''[[Falling Towards England]]'', published in 1985, ''May Week Was in June'' (1990), ''North Face of Soho'' (2006) and ''The Blaze of Obscurity'' (2009).<ref name="Sydney Morning Herald - 28 November 2019 - Clive James: Literary and TV giant dead at 80">{{cite news |last1=Veitch |first1=Harriet |title=Clive James: Literary and TV giant dead at 80 |url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/clive-james-literary-and-tv-giant-dead-at-80-20191128-p53ett.html |access-date=31 October 2021 |work=[[Sydney Morning Herald]] |date=28 November 2019}}</ref>
''Unreliable Memoirs'' is also the title of an [[omnibus edition]] published in 1990 which included ''Falling Towards England'' and ''May Week Was in June'' in addition to the title memoir.
==Synopsis== This volume of James's autobiography follows his life from his early childhood in the Sydney suburb of Kogarah, through school and university until he sets sail for the United Kingdom in 1962.
==Critical reception== Writing in ''The Canberra Times'' John Pomeroy noted: "There is much goodwill and affection in these recollections and there is evidence of a painful audit of emotions and influences from his formative years. The book may be short of great names and events and lacking the strong narrative of ''My Brother Jack'', but they will strike a chord for many of his generation."<ref name="CT">{{cite web|title="Suburban Memoirs" |newspaper= Canberra Times|date= 13 December 1980|publisher= The Canberra Times, 13 December 1980, p16|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article126163816|access-date= 7 November 2023}}</ref>
In 2015 [[P. J. O'Rourke]] called the book "the best memoir in the world". He went on: "''Unreliable Memoirs'' is written with a mastery of the honest and a down-the-hole understanding of its pitfalls. Honesty comes in various types and the best is exaggeration...Clive exaggerates to wonderfully honest effect. He sets to work with singular material, a combination of an exceptional young mind, an upbringing in the exotically named town of Kogarah, a pained childhood with his father, a Japanese prisoner of war, surviving only to die in a repatriation plane crash and his mother worn by worry and toil and, finally, tragedy. Then Clive, by a wild act of exaggeration, makes all this universal. He takes the yeast of his memory and plants it in the bread dough of ours."<ref name="SMH">{{cite web|title= "PJ O'Rourke hails the reliable memoir of Clive James"|date= 13 February 2015|publisher= The Sydney Morning Herald, 13 February 2015|url= https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/pj-orourke-hails-the-reliable-memoir-of-clive-james-20150212-13cqae.html|access-date= 7 November 2023|archive-date= 7 November 2023|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20231107060717/https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/pj-orourke-hails-the-reliable-memoir-of-clive-james-20150212-13cqae.html|url-status= live}}</ref>
==Publication history== After its original publication in 1980 in the UK by publisher Jonathan Cape<ref name="NLA1">{{cite web|title= ''Unreliable Memoris'' (Jonathan Cape)|publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2916509|access-date= 7 November 2023|archive-date= 20 March 2022|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220320035949/https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2916509|url-status= live}}</ref> it was later published as follows:
* Picador, UK, 1980 and 2015<ref name="Austlit">{{cite web|title= Austlit — ''Unreliable Memoirs'' by Clive James (Jonathan Cape) 1980|publisher= Austlit|url= https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/CC39090|accessdate= 7 November 2023}}</ref> * [[Knopf]], USA, 1981<ref name="NLA3">{{cite web|title= ''Unreliable Memoirs'' (Knopf) |publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1439536|access-date= 7 November 2023}}</ref> * [[W. W. Norton]], USA, 2009<ref name="Austlit" /> * [[Folio Society]], UK, 2010<ref name="Austlit" />
==See also== * [[1980 in Australian literature]]
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[https://archive.org/details/unreliablememoir0000jame_e2h2/mode/2up Unreliable memoirs], with Introduction by [[P. J. O'Rourke]]. London, Picador, 2015 at [[Internet Archive]] *[https://archive.org/details/unreliablememoir0000cliv/page/n1/mode/2up Unreliable memoirs: Omnibus containing Unreliable memoirs, Falling Towards England, May Week Was in June]. London, Quality Paperbacks Drection, 1990 at [[Internet Archive]]
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[[Category:1980 non-fiction books]] [[Category:Australian autobiographies]] [[Category:Jonathan Cape books]]