“Work is the nice life”
STEPHEN FRY is probably the closest our age has come to a Doctor Johnson, the 18th century essayist, poet, playwright, moralist, biographer and compiler of the first definitive English dictionary.
Fry’s interests are no less varied, ranging from acting, broadcasting and directing to writing on a bewilderingly wide variety of subjects, most recently the myths and legends of Ancient Greece. Revered by millions he is, nevertheless, a divisive figure whose ubiquity has at times been tiresome, especially when accompanied by a tendency to hector and to preach.
More recently Fry seems to have mellowed and generally seems a much happier soul. And despite being born into a life of relative comfort and privilege his life as, at times, been anything but easy.
One constant has been his love of everything English – not the patriotic, flag-waving kind, more a deep-seated love of this country’s traditions and a pride in its general reputation for tolerance and refusal to take anything too seriously, traits Stephen seems to have inherited from his parents.
His father, Alan, was a brilliant technician and inventor while mother Marianne was a history teacher. Stephen was their second son, born in 1957, and, soon after, the family moved from Hampstead to the Buckinghamshire town of Chesham. He attended Chesham prep school and from the age of seven developed an obsession with collecting facts. Also, after being treated for a speech impediment, he discovered a love of language for its own
