In this early thirties, Stephen Fry – writer, comedian, star of stage and screen – had, as they say, ‘made it’. Much loved in A Bit of Fry and Laurie, Blackadder and Jeeves and Wooster, author of a critically acclaimed and bestselling first novel, The Liar, with a glamorous and glittering cast of friends, he had more work than was perhaps good for him.
What could possibly go wrong?
“More Fool Me” documents his years of excess in the 1980s to 1990s and as a highly functioning genius, and addict.
I’m liking
The best parts of the book for me were in the personal, the little gems where the writing is not about the show of successes but in who he is and how he navigates life.
These were interesting times. He tells of a heady London where the nights were alive with excess. Stephen Fry moved in fascinating circles and managed to keep a very successful career throughout years of otherwise partying and damage.
The conclusion
Stephen Fry is an extraordinary success- actor, writer, comic, presenter, thinker, avid talker and Twitterer. I was thrilled to see another book come along.
But this memoir, his third, was missing the spark and story. It jumped around the place. It recapped for a long time his earlier books, and included years of his diaries later. These didn’t fit and I found myself flipping through to see if I had missed a logical step.
Not his finest and I look forward to the next one, in what might have been a misstep. In the meantime, I’m picking up “The Fry Chronicles” again.
