Friday 25 February 2011

The Fry Chronicles: An Autobiography

I love Stephen Fry and found this book very easy to enjoy. It covers his life through university up to the age of about 30. One of the appealing things for me was that the book is peopled with characters I grew up watching on TV and think of affectionately such as Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie and Ben Elton. There are plenty of behind the scenes anecdotes and a little bit of gossip. I enviously read about life as a student at Cambridge. He loves words and, had I not been enjoying the book too much to put it down, would've been reaching for the dictionary quite a lot.

I felt that there was enough insight into the private man to make me feel that I know him better now. One of the repeated themes of the book is the gap between the urbane, confident man we see on television, and the private man who is constantly doubting himself. He often apologises for any complaints he makes about his life, feeling that it must be extremely irritating to hear rich, successful people complain.

So, loved the book and would recommend it.

4 comments:

  1. I must pick this up; I love Stephen Fry. Seagreen Reader, don't despair about your son. Of my three godchildren the eldest and the youngest (both boys as it happens) loved books from day one, but the middle one, a girl wouldn't have anything to do with them. Then at fourteen she went into the local bookshop who were doing six classics for five pounds bought half a dozen and has never looked back. She actually started with 'Jane Eyre'. I think this is the equivalent of the child who doesn't talk until very late but then comes out with complete sentences. It may just happen.

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  2. Annie - thank you very much for your comment. Hopefully my son will take after your god-daughter. He will read about football, which I suppose is something. Do read the Stephen Fry book, if you like him I think you'll enjoy it.
    Joanne

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  3. I have a 10 year old son who reads voraciously; we find him awake in the middle of the night still reading when the light should have been turned off hours before. But when I read the introduction to your blog it jogged a long forgotten memory - he wasn't always like that. Books line the walls of our house, but they didn't interest him. The one that made the difference was called Tashi. I haven't read it myself, so I don't really know if it has any intrinsic merit, but having successfully read that one book on his own he didn't stop.

    I tend to focus on reading books from the past, and so I'm not always aware of books recently published that I would like to read. I love Stephen Fry, though, so I shall look out for this one.

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  4. Karyn - thank you, I won't give up hope just yet. I read a mix of old and new, though I don't usually read about contemporary celebrities. I love Stephen Fry which is why I picked this one up and it didn't disappoint.

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