The Stars' Tennis Balls - Stephen Fry > Reviews

Advantages: characterisation, philosophy.
Disadvantages: the usual problems that dog adaptations of all kinds...

...Erudite and witty, he is the man who can make upper middle class intellectualism cool. He's been a comedian, actor, even director, but you get the sense that it's his writing for which Fry will be chiefly remembered. So what if his novels tend to revolve around the naughty antics of sexually ambiguous schoolboys (The Liar) or postgraduate university students (Making History)? They display a flair for the written word not generally seen in this ... Read review

Advantages: A good read
Disadvantages: Black humour

...round in my local library the other week, clutching my copy of “Birds without Wings “ and generally trying to appear intellectual, I spotted this novel by Stephen Fry. I already knew him as a talented comedian and a great actor (I did so love his appearances in Black Adder), and something of a “wit”, but an author? All I can say in my defence is that I have spent years reading my way through all the horror and sci-fi sections of my local library. The ... Read review

Advantages: Enjoyable yarn, but it is a revenge tragedy so don't expect a happy ending.
Disadvantages: Characters can sometimes start to sound like Fry himself - i.e. too clever by half.

...St. Mark's College, Oxford - the alma mater of his father, and his father before him (yea verily unto the middle ages.) For naive young Ned is the son of a Tory Minister: Charles Maddstone. He is in love with Portia Fenderman (who describes her own parents as "Jewish left-wing intellectuals") but this isn't a love story for long... Things go extraordinarily pear-shaped for Ned after he slyly reads the diary of his classmate Ashley. Actually, ... Read review

Advantages: strong plot good characterisation
Disadvantages: tad depressing

...I was wrong. This is the tale of a bright young lad called Ned, for whom life is pretty good on the whole - madly in love with beautiful Portia, who adores him, finishing at private school, heading for Oxford. He's good looking, clever and nice as well. Don't you just hate him already? And this is rather Ned's problem - it would never occur to him that being a golden boy as he is, he might actually have weed a few people off intensely. The ... Read review