1 Dec 2010

The Fry Chronicles - by Stephen Fry

I was looking forward to reading this book, as I enjoy autobiographies in general, and I'm a big fan of Stephen Fry in particular. He is top of the list of guests for my fantasy dinner party; on this list, he is in the minority because he is still alive.

The bottom line is that I enjoyed it very much. It took me a while to get through, which was partly because I was busy, but I think I was also not keen for it to end.

As you might expect, if you are familiar with Fry, the book is well written and his voice is very clear - no ghost writing going here! I read it as an e-book on my iPad - mainly because I was impatient to get my copy and the instant delivery is a boon. I was glad I did, because he is a sesquipedalianist - he likes using long, obscure words. Being able to look them up at a touch, without having to keep a real dictionary on hand, was very nice. He also invents new words. I particularly liked "badolescence".

The book is full of quotable lines like "Success has a dozen parents and failure is an orphan" and "The man who put the turd in Saturday Live".

Fry is a great name dropper, but I don't think he can help it, given the circles he moves in. Sometimes he gives some interesting insight into other well known figures. For example, on Alan Bennett: "It is a very Bennetty kind of shyness that sees performing on stage in front of hundreds of strangers as less stressful than attending a party." I never thought I'd empathise so strongly with Alan Bennett, but that rings so true.

All in all, a good read. And I am now going to read his earlier volume "Moab is my Washpot".

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