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  • North Face of Soho

  • By: Clive James
  • Narrated by: Clive James
  • Length: 4 hrs and 48 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (25 ratings)

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North Face of Soho

By: Clive James
Narrated by: Clive James
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Publisher's Summary

Read by the author, Clive James.

From Fleet Street to the television, North Face of Soho is the fascinating and hilarious fourth volume of memoir from much-loved author, poet and broadcaster Clive James.

It is 1968. Newly married, dressed in the style of the times ('a frenzy of bad judgement'), Clive James is leaving the cloistered world of Cambridge academia and setting his sights once again on the lights of literary London.

Luckily for him and us, this crack at the big city would go rather better than last time.

Still writing songs, directing sketch shows and trying to break into the movie business, with very mixed success, Clive eventually lands a weekly TV column at the Observer, finds his metier and rapidly becomes a household name. Credited with inventing a genre, Clive turns his attention to the previously critically disregarded medium of television to comment on the entire culture. Through the Seventies and early Eighties, from Fleet Street to Hollywood, from Russian department stores to Paris fashion shows, this is the hilarious, entertaining and honest story of a life lived to the full.

North Face of Soho is the fourth book of memoir from Clive James. Continue his story with The Blaze of Obscurity.

©2006 Clive James (P)2006 Macmillan Publishers Ltd

Critic Reviews

'[James] delivers his gags with honed elegance' – Sunday Times

What listeners say about North Face of Soho

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Clive James weaves his magic again

Where does North Face of Soho rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

A fabulous yarn, read by Clive himself. This is as enjoyable an audiobook as you'll ever hear. Self-deprecating to a fault James takes us through his early career as he lurches from failure to success and back again

What other book might you compare North Face of Soho to, and why?

"Unreliable Memoirs" and "Falling Towards England" by the same author, or any of his other autobiographical books

Have you listened to any of Clive James’s other performances? How does this one compare?

All of Clive James' prose is excellent, especially his volumes of memoirs. This one is as good as any of the others

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Clive's wordplay is delightful as always and there are numerous laugh-out-loud moments. Told in his familiar laconic Aussie drawl I was hooked from start to finish

Any additional comments?

James uses words as deftly as a surgeon wields his scalpel: with unerring skill and pinpoint precision. The countless laughs are just a bonus

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Tinged with nostalgia

Tinged with nostalgia, I listened to the wonderful James with joy. A neighbour who’s voice and humour is timeless. His poetry is even better than his wonderful prose.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Monotonous

This part of Clive's life as told by him, was monotonous through to half way into the book. His voice has a pleasant sound, but the sentences and paragraphs were all read in the same manner. I couldn't listen to it anymore. It wasn't riveting. It was endless non progress. Whilst his life might have improved toward the end of the book, and indeed in the latter part of his life and later books, for this one at least, it was so dragging on about repeated set-backs and failures, I chose to just turn him off and listen to a more uplifting author.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

An excellent Audio Book, unique and good

I finished the Audio Book and I am playing it for the third time, something of a first for me!

A unique character with a gift of narrative and is best at telling his own story.

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