The Fry Chronicles: An Autobiography, by Stephen Fry (Penguin, RRP $37):
Stephen Fry is one of those horribly intelligent people who manages to make it very clear that he knows a lot about a lot without coming across as a pompous prat.
Well, OK, at times he does do the pompous prat thing, but he does it extremely well and with such good humour that you really don’t care.
This is not an all-encompassing look at the life of Stephen Fry: it is simply a glimpse, taking in the time of his arrival at Cambridge up to his 30th birthday (1979 to 1987).
However, it is a fun read with some interesting insights into the inner workings of the mind of a young Mr Fry and is littered with references to those who influenced and affected him during those early years.
“Funny, witty and revealing”, says the blurb on the cover. It is all of these things, and more.