The Fry Chronicles
The Fry Chronicles: An Autobiography is the 2010 autobiography of Stephen Fry. The book is a continuation from the end of his 1997 publication of his first autobiography, Moab Is My Washpot: An Autobiography. Though without a strict chronology, it concentrates on a seven-year period of Fry's life, taking up the story after his release from prison, his time at the University of Cambridge and his career in comedy by the late 1980s.
The book is Fry's ninth, and his second volume of autobiography. Critics have called the book "candid, sincere, and charming, with insightful commentary if occasionally flat stories".
It was published by Michael Joseph on 13 September 2010 in the United Kingdom and in the United States. It was simultaneously published as an e-book, an audiobook, and an iOS application by ePenguin; both imprints of Penguin Books.
Background
Fry travelled to Los Angeles in January 2010 to write his second autobiography, when he publicly announced his "self-imposed exile" from various online services, such as Twitter. Fry returned to Britain and various online services in late April 2010. He publicly announced his return on his blog that there had been a few "exceptions" to his self-imposed exile and that he planned to gradually return to Twitter, so as not to annoy his followers. In it he also described his life while working on his book, saying that he wrote solely in the mornings, from "about 5 AM till lunchtime", leaving afternoons and early evenings for "other things". He acknowledges his "peculiar" lifestyle when writing, saying it is "the only way to coax a book out of me".Contents
Stephen Fry's first memoir, Moab Is My Washpot: An Autobiography, published in 1997, told of his life up to the age of 18, when he was told that, despite his delinquent adolescence, he had won a scholarship to Queens' College in Cambridge.The Fry Chronicles tells of his life up to his 30th birthday, covering his time at university, his rise to success as a writer and performer, meeting Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie and Rowan Atkinson as he makes his way through sketch shows, and his rise to fame on Saturday Live and Blackadder, while his version of the musical Me and My Girl with Mike Ockrent becomes a global success and makes him a modest fortune while he is still in his twenties. Subsequently, many articles he has written are recalled. The book ends in August 1987, his 30th birthday, at his six-bedroom house in Norfolk.
The dedication of The Fry Chronicles reads simply "To M'Coll" meaning Hugh Laurie. Fry and Laurie both refer to each other as "M'Colleague" in their TV show ''A Bit of Fry and Laurie.''
Style
Chapters in The Fry Chronicles are organised under headings all beginning with the letter "C". The book ends with Fry taking cocaine, a subject that he expands on in his third autobiography More Fool Me: A Memoir.Fry acknowledges that he uses 100 words where "ten would do" and he defends this as showing his "great, generous love of words".