Stephen Fry

I started off thinking I was not going to like Stephen Fry’s autobiography Moab is My Washpot. Too relentlessly clever and perhaps heartless. In actual fact, I throw in the sponge in the face of such brilliance and wit. He really does make you laugh out loud. And he is not heartless.

I love, in particular, this remark attributed to Alexander Graham Bell soon after he invented the telephone: “I do not think I am exaggerating the possibilities of this invention when I tell you that it is my firm belief that one day there will be a telephone in every major town in America”.