Saturday 29 January 2011

Recommended Reading: The Fry Chronicles: An Autobiography


I have just completed Stephen Fry's 'The Fry Chronicles: An Autobiography'.
Stephen Fry is an well loved English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director. He is well know together with Hugh Laurie as the comedy double act Fry and Laurie,  and the duo also played the title roles in one of my favorite series which I have written about before, namely Jeeves and Wooster.

As a solo actor, Fry is known from among Oscar Wilde, he was Melchett in the series Blackadder and is the host of the quiz show QI. He is also known to British audiences everywhere as the reader of all seven Harry Potter novels in their audiobook versions.

This book is a continuation from the end of his 1997 publication of his first autobiography, Moab Is My Washpot: An Autobiography. Though not adhering to any strict chronology, it concentrates on the seven-year period of Fry’s life, taking up the story after his release from prison, his time at the University of Cambridge and his burgeoning career in comedy by the late 1980s.
 
This is Fry's his second volume of autobiography. Critics have called the book candid, sincere, and charming, with insightful commentary if occasionally flat stories. Although, I am not generally a fan of autobiographies, I enjoyed reading this book as he is extremely eloquent and I am a great fan of his work. On the downside -  he does use an enormous amount of words but that explains why he needed 448 pages to describe only 7 years of his life... 
How can anyone remember all the details?

4 comments:

  1. Fry har også vært på nosk Tv. Min mann fulgte serien hans, men ikke jeg. Jeg ser veldig lite tv, men leser mye på kveldene.

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  2. Denne mannen har utmerket seg på rett og slett alle mulige måter - imponerende !

    Håper du ellers har en stress fri helg og nyter :-)

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  3. Da skal jeg lese den. Jeg har utrolig sansen for Fry - og en del av sjarmen er jo at han virkelig KAN dette med ord. :) Jeg har ikke leste Moab osv, av en eller annen grunn. Jeg burde kanskje lese den først. Jeg holder på med Wolfhall akkurat nå og er på leting etter neste bok.

    Håper du har en fin helg.

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  4. Ahh, den gode følelsen av å lesa ei god bok :o)

    Lenge si eg har fått lest nå, for det e så mange kreative krumspring som fylle hodet mitt for tida :o)
    Trur guttungen helste var litt overraska øve at det blei gymbag på han forresten ;o)

    Ha ei glad ny veka

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