More Fool Me
I have been a fan of Stephen Fry for lo these many years, but I knew nothing about Stephan’s private life. So when he opens up More Fool Me by casually mentioning that he is Jewish and Gay and shortly thereafter goes into some detail about his love for cocaine, suffice to say I was a bit surprised by most of what I found here. Not that I have anything against gay Jewish drug addicts, its just that I never thought of those terms in relationship to Stephen Fry.
Stephen is easily the best name dropper I have I ever read. He casually mentions his friendships with Hugh Laurie, John Cleese, Emma Thompson, and what appears to be every actor who ever appeared on British television. He also talks about British politicians and has a lovely story about having tea with Prince Charles and Princess Diana. I knew most of the names thanks to countless hours spent watching Britcoms, but even the names that meant nothing to me still featured in fun stories.
Stephen narrates the audio book and I think that is definitely the way to read this book. Stephen has a wonderful delivery and he speaks in such a way that you feel as if he is talking to you. He mentions how this is his intention, that he merely wants to speak to the reader as if they were chatting over drinks at Groucho’s, a club he mentions at every opportunity.
More Fool Me might be subtitled the Cocaine Diaries, as there is rather a lot of talk about darting off to the bathroom and doing seven foot long lines of coke and how, looking back, he is amazed that he lived through those heady days. But live he did. I thoroughly enjoyed More Fool Me.
