Product Description

A humorous autobiography that covers the author's time at public school, acting and writing career and the ups and downs of his personal life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #229210 in Books
• Published on: 1997-10-02
• Released on: 2007-11-05
• Formats: Audiobook, Unabridged
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 6
• Binding: Audio Cassette

Customer Reviews

Pot Washing Therapy
A wonderfully endearing book by a very likeable man. I was hooked from the beginning and although it does get a little mawkish on occasion, Fry's honesty is therapeutic and his admissions fascinating.

Be warned however, that this is not a whimsical account of his comedy career. It is an emotional confession of the struggle Fry had in the first twenty years of his life. Although the man's intelligence and charm are evident throughout, he vents spleen aplenty and his language is rather colourful at times. His love of music, film and words are my loves and so I devoured his writing. His digressions (he calls then diversions) often lead to even greater digressions and this is wonderful. The style is not stilted or excessively crafted but heartfelt and accessible. Fry does not set out to portray himself as misunderstood but to tell things as they are. I found the book inspirational and somehow felt better about myself afterwards. It will make you think about your family and your honesty. Yes, you will laugh but do not read this expecting a saccharine happy childhood story.

Treat yourself and indulge in some pot-washing yourself.

A truly great autobiography
I read The Liar and The Hippopotamus and found them a little too flowery for my liking, but then I'm not a great novel reader anyway. The pages of this book, on the other hand, turned so quickly, I thought they might catch fire.

As another reviewer stated, his frequent ramblings off the main thread of the story are sheer joy and make you feel he is in the room talking to you. And he can't resist teaching us a new word by including it then demonstrating its meaning e.g. rhotacism, or explicitly correcting a widely used grammatical or spelling error! All very familiar Fry stuff.

Stephen says himself that his life is at once as unremarkable as they come and stranger than fiction, when you put it down at the end, you feel he is spot on. Only once towards the very end did I see a quality in him that you could be unashamedly proud of.

Don't worry if you don't like his novels, this is one of the most absorbing and satisfying autobiographies ever written.

A rare pleasure and a huge privilege.
You will seldom read another book whose author lays himself so touchingly, vulnerably bare. The only parallel I can think of is Edmund White's beautiful 'A Boy's Own Story'. Stephen Fry's catharsis is our gain, as a whole young life unravels through the pages of 'Moab...' Ultimately it is the story of Fry learning to accept himself; it is a measure of his intellectual and emotional depths that he was able to struggle and fight for so long. Some may hear echoes of Andre Gide's self-explanatory 'L'Immoraliste', but Fry's view of himself as an adolescent is far more sympathetic and affectionate. He compares his love for 'Matthew' to the great literary loves of Shakespeare, Milton and the Classical authors - and in our cynical, jaded era, this is probably the closest you'll come to witnessing love, raw and bleeding and writhing on the cold slab in full view. It is a rare pleasure and a huge privilege to be allowed access to Stephen Fry's living memories. A one-off.