Clive Barnes

Barnes was born in Lambeth, London, the only child of ambulance driver Arthur Lionel Barnes (1898–1940) and Freda Marguerite, née Garratt. After their divorce when he was seven, he was raised by his mother. Barnes was educated at Emanuel School in Battersea and St Catherine's College, Oxford. He served in the Royal Air Force for two years. ==Career==

Barnes began writing dance criticism in 1949, during his time at Oxford, and afterward, he was a writer and editor for Dance & Dancers, which he contributed to until its demise in 1998. In 1978, after being asked to fully divest of his role as a drama critic, he was hired by the New York Post, which allowed him to cover both mediums. The British writer was known for his "lively and enthusiastic approach to criticism" which contributed to an upswing in dance criticism in New York City media. Writing for Variety, Gordon Cox said Barnes "helped nurture the explosion of the form in Gotham in the 1970s." Regarding television, Barnes once wrote: "It is the first truly democratic culture, the first culture available to everyone and entirely governed by what the people want. The most terrifying thing is what people do want." ==Reception==

The Daily Telegraph noted that Barnes sometimes wrote four reviews a day, possibly because New Yorkers were "greedy for his brand of pithy English open-mindedness." He was credited with having drawn attention to Nureyev and Baryshnikov, dancers who went on to attain great fame. The English writer was particularly good at identifying American talent and introducing artists like George Balanchine and Martha Graham to London audiences. In his book on Broadway, The Season: A Candid Look at Broadway, William Goldman called Barnes "the most dangerous, the most crippling critic in modern Broadway history." Goldman gave the following reasons for this: ==Personal life and death==

Barnes was married four times, with the first three marriages, to Joyce Tolman in 1947, to Patricia Winkley in 1958, and to Amy Pagnozzi in 1985, ending in divorce; his fourth marriage, to Valerie Taylor, lasted from 2004 until his death. He had two children from his second marriage. Barnes died from liver cancer at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City on 19 November 2008. ==Legacy==

Honours He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 1975, and appointed a knight of the Order of the Dannebrog in 1972 by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark. Clive Barnes Awards The Clive Barnes Foundation was established in 2009 to administer the Clive Barnes Awards. ==References==