I love Stephen Fry. I've read, watched or heard most of his considerable output over the years, mostly with unalloyed joy. And this book,too. But. Oh but. What is my gripe? Well, I've just finished reading it today, and I feel it's a little, well, slight. We end in 1987, pausing on a deep breath for the tribulations ahead that we know Stephen suffered, and it all feels a little too staged, and that the third tranche of this life story, when it comes, will be little more than another money making exercise, which is odd as Stephen spends an awful lot of time in this book apologising for the wealth he's already accrued. Let me explain it like this: this book is well written, with the expected Fryesque delight in the exuberance of language well used; the man knows how to tell an anecdote - boy does he; and we have some interesting reflections on the rise of the new wave of comedy that engulfed us in the early 1980s. All that is to the book's credit, no doubt. But in well over 400 pages we cover Stephen at university, where his entire world, quite disappointingly to me, centred around amateur drama, and the beginnings of Stephen's career, and I'm not sure that we learn a massive amount that's new about either. Oh sure, the pages fly by, which is always a good sign. There is much for the Fryfanatic (like myself) to smile and reflect on...but I wonder is there enough in here? In short, at this rate we'll need another two biographical submissions from Stephen to bring us up to date, and I wonder if that is really justified? Perhaps it is, and I'm quite wrong. No doubt I'll buy them too, if and when they are published, but I'm left with a sneeking suspicion that we're over-egging the pudding slightly, and I just feel a teeny bit exploited, and taken for granted. In short, it's an enjoyable romp, but I think more ground could be covered and more could be revealed, in the same number of pages. But that would necessitate firm editing and the publishers accepting that perhaps four or five autobiographies, however lucrative for them and the author, might be a little excessive.
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