BROADCASTER Clive James says he considers himself lucky despite his battle against serious illness.
The Australian star, best known for his hit show Clive James On Television, was diagnosed with leukaemia, kidney failure and lung disease in 2010.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme that he was continuing to work but had "much less energy" so had to "budget it very carefully".
He said he was near the "departure lounge", adding: "I think it's important not to be morbid and the secret there is to keep a sense of proportion. I'm at the hospital two or three times a week usually and if you hang around a hospital long enough you'll see things that remind you that you have a lucky life. If you can see at all, you've had a lucky life."
Mr James, who said he was writing two books including one on poetry, said his major regret was that he was too ill to travel to his native Australia one last time.
His latest poem, Sentenced to Life, speaks of death and contains the line: "Now I am weak."
Mr James said: "Inevitably, you start saying goodbye."
He was born in Sydney and came to England in 1961, where he made a career in journalism including a successful stint as a prominent literary critic and then television columnist for The Observer. Clive James On Television ran for years and his wry commentary on programmes, including the Japanese gameshow Endurance, made him a household name.
In 2011, his illness was made public when he wrote a letter to The Australian Literary Review revealing he had cancer and was being treated at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge. He spoke publicly about his illness the following year when he admitted he had "been really ill for two-and-a-half years" and "almost died four times in that period".
Speaking yesterday, Mr James joked: "As my friend PJ O'Rourke once told me, he said 'you're going to have to soft-pedal this death's door stuff, Clive, because people are going to get impatient'."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article