More Fool Me: A Memoir
Stephen Fry says: "Memoir, the act of literary remembering, for me seems to take the form of a kind of dialogue with my former self. What are you doing? Why are you behaving like that? Who do you think you're fooling? Stop it! Don't do that! Look out!
"Books, too, can take the form of a dialogue. I flatter myself, vainly perhaps, that I have been having a dialogue with you. You might think this is madness. But truly do I hear what I consider to be the voice of the reader, your voice. Yes, yours. Hundreds of thousands of you, wincing, pursing your lips, laughing here, hissing here, nodding, tutting, comparing your life to mine with as much objective honesty as you can."
In his 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? Then, as the 80s drew to a close, he discovered a most enjoyable way to burn the candle at both ends, and took to excess like a duck to water. Writing and recording by day, and haunting a never ending series of celebrity parties, drinking dens, and poker games by night, in a ludicrous and impressive act of bravado, he fooled all those except the very closest to him, some of whom were most enjoyably engaged in the same dance.
He was - to all intents and purposes - a high functioning addict. Blazing brightly and partying wildly as the 80s turned to the 90s, AIDS became an epidemic and politics turned really nasty, he was so busy, so distracted by the high life, that he could hardly see the inevitable, headlong tumble that must surely follow...
Containing raw, electric extracts from his diaries of the time, More Fool Me is a brilliant, eloquent account by a man driven to create and to entertain - revealing a side to him he has long kept hidden.
First published: Thursday 25th September 2014
- Publisher: Michael Joseph
- Catalogue: 9780718179786
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