UPDATE: WE DID IT! I interviewed Clive James in February 2015 and posted the episode at the end of March! Go check out the episode or just give it a listen right here:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
When I started The Virtual Memories Show, I put together a prospective guest list for my podcast, with a Dream Guests section. Those Dream Guests include Philip Roth, Tom Stoppard, Robert Caro, Fran Lebowitz, Harold Bloom, Richard Price, Pevear & Volokhonsky, and Clive James. Quite a disparate crew, I admit.
Clive James was diagnosed with leukemia and emphysema in 2010, so I assumed there was no chance I’d be able to record a conversation with him. But in mid-December, I heard him in a BBC interview about his new collection of essays, Poetry Notebook: Reflections on the Intensity of Language
So I pitched him via his management and his US publisher (Poetry Notebook will be out in America at the end of March), and also asked if I could record a separate segment with his wife, Prue Shaw, about her 2014 book, Reading Dante: From Here to Eternity
This week, he replied that both he and Prue are up for doing the show, and that it’ll have to be on a Sunday in late February.
I’m writing in hopes that you can provide me with two things
- Questions to ask Clive James and/or Prue Shaw, and
- Money.
To pull this off without missing lots of time at work, I’m planning to fly out of Newark on a redeye on Friday, Feb. 20, landing Saturday morning in Heathrow. I’ll either head straight up to Cambridge, or stay in London on Saturday (depending on timing, lining up other guests, etc.). On Sunday, I’ll record with Clive James and Prue Shaw at their homes in Cambridge. On Monday, I’ll fly home.
This trip is not going to be cheap. Airfare was $1165. Add in two nights of hotels ($520), trains to Cambridge and back, parking at Newark, food, a data-plan for my iPhone, and it looks like this 3-day trip will run around $2,000 or so. (I’ll be bringing my own coffee setup.)
You know I make The Virtual Memories Show for love and not money, but this one’s a pretty big expense. I appreciate any contribution you can make. You can make a donation through Paypal by clicking the button below, or you can e-mail me at groth@chimeraobscura.com for my mailing address, if you’d prefer to send a check.
Also, send me any questions you have for either of them and I’ll do my best to get to them in our interviews.
UPDATE: I added two more guests for this trip to Cambridge: translator Anthea Bell and literary critic David Winters!
I’m Gil Roth, and you are awesome. Keep it that way.