Brilliant Creatures
28 March 2013
Imprint: Picador
Synopsis
The debut novel from much-loved writer, poet and broadcaster Clive James, Brilliant Creatures is a bold, hilarious satire of the media industry.
'Clive James doesn't miss a trick' – The Times
Lancelot Windhover used to be famous, but that was a long, long time ago. And so now, when his extramarital affair is on the path to becoming a subject for the...
Details
28 March 2013
320 pages
9781447235255
Imprint: Picador
Reviews
The brilliant creatures of the title live in a world of lost innocence and vast incomes; publishers, writers, media men and consultants, they belong to a charmed circle where everyone knows everybody else’s business and thinks it the most important thing in life. It’s all marvellously clever; Clive James doesn’t miss a trick. It’s funny too. Enjoy, enjoy.The Times
James is up on a tightrope of style, wobbling away, relentlessly funny. James’s achievement, beyond the fizz and the jokes, is to have created characters who begin to be likeable, and who make and live with a decision worth pondering.London Review of Books
I thought I was going to hate Brilliant Creatures, the first novel by Clive James. But before long I found myself greatly enjoying this romping satire of London literary life. The chief pleasure of Brilliant Creatures lies in the writing, which sizzles off the page with a rare merriment.Illustrated London News
Foaming with ideas and afterthoughts and after-afterthoughts, Clive James’s first novel is a joy to read. He is nearer to Wodehouse than to Waugh. He is not setting out merely to raise laughs. He takes vigorous swipes at most of the unacceptable faces of society, and, as with all good satirists, there is venom in the indignation.Listener