'A remarkable, perhaps even unique, exercise in autobiography... that aroma of authenticity that is the point of all great autobiographies; of which this, I rather think, is one.' - Evening Standard
Moab is My Washpot is in turns funny, shocking, tender, delicious, sad, lyrical, bruisingly frank and addictively readable.
Stephen Fry's bestselling memoir tells how, sent to a boarding school 200 miles from home at the age of seven, he survived beatings, misery, love, ecstasy, carnal violation, expulsion, imprisonment, criminal conviction, probation and catastrophe to emerge, at eighteen, ready to try and face the world in which he had always felt a stranger.
Fry writes with the wit to which we have become accustomed, but with shocking candour too. In an age of glossy celebrity autobiographies, Moab is My Washpot sets the high standard to which others should aspire.
Publisher: Cornerstone
ISBN: 9780099457046
Number of pages: 448
Weight: 321 g
Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 27 mm
One of the most poignant, funny, intelligent, frank and horribly addictive books you're likely to read all year - Sunday Telegraph
A remarkable, perhaps even unique, exercise in autobiography ... that aroma of authenticity that is the point of all great autobiographies: of which his, I rather think, is one - Evening Standard
Stephen Fry is one of the great originals ... This autobiography of his first twenty years is a pleasure to read, mixing outrageous acts with sensible opinions in bewildering confusion ... That so much outward charm, self-awareness and intellect should exist alongside behaviour that threatened to ruin the lives of innocent victims, noble parents and Fry himself, gives the book a tragic grandeur and lifts it to classic status - Financial Times
He writes superbly about his family, about his homosexuality, about the agonies of childhood ... some of his bursts of simile take the breath away ... his most satisfying and appealing book so far - Observer
This is one of the most extraordinary and affecting biographies I have read . . . Stephen is . . . painfully honest when trying to grapple with his ever-present demons, and often, as you might expect, very funny - Daily Mail
The writing is rhapsodic, intoxicated and very touching - Mail on Sunday
[A] wonderful, self-lacerating autobiography - Humphrey Carpenter, Sunday Times
He has produced a remarkable autobiography . . . It makes gripping, sometimes unbearably sad, sometimes confusing reading . . . exhilarating, humane, zany, literary - Spectator
No one can make you feel quite like Stephen Fry can . . . Funny and tormentedly frank - Time Out
Hugely enjoyable . . . compulsively readable . . . Fry is excellent on the details of memory, too, and always able to embellish them with effortless erudition . . . this engaging, engrossing read is as honest a portrait of a young liar as one could hope to read - Scotsman
He is bubbly, funny and charming, and he gives his fans plenty of material if they want to speculate on why he is both so gifted and so wayward - The Times
The jokes . . . transcend the complexes of the joker, turning the Stephenesque into a national as well as a family treasure - Guardian
Not so much an autobiography, more a way of life; discursive, funny, sometimes almost unbelievably sad, opinionated, nostalgic and very infectious - Claire Rayner, New Statesman
Fry can be funny about anything - Good Book Guide
So charming and so acute that one cannot help forgiving him - Daily Express
Witty, charming, over-the-top, very colourful and brutally honest is the only way you can describe this autobiography covering the first troubled, chaotic and indulgent twenty years of Stephen's life. He is... More
Whenever he writes, Stephen Fry is always a pleasure to read and this book, a witty tale of his first twenty years, is no exception.
It recounts the highs and lows of the formative stages of his life, especially the...
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A good peek into the early stages of Stephen Fry's life. This book is packed with wonderful wit and has an extremely personal feel to it. It will make you laugh and it may make you cry. The best autobiography... More
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