Stephen Fry: The Stars' Tennis Balls

Stephen Fry: The Stars' Tennis Balls

Stephen Fry is a British comedien, actor, author and much more. I have watched some of his tv programmes, my favourite being QI, and listened to his podgrammes. I admire Fry very much, but I was actually a bit disappointed in the first fiction book of his I read, The Liar. But I think the problem was I expected something very different that what the book was.

The main character in The Stars' Tennis Balls is Ned Maddstone, a young, confident/selfish, handsome and popular son of an MP. He is madly in love with his girlfriend, who is madly in love with him, he has been to the most expensive schools in Britain, and he is perfect in many ways. The novel is very much about the plot, so I'm not sure what more I can say about it. The plot grabs you from the very first chapter, so revealing anything might take away part of the reading experience.

The themes I think I found in the book were the evil in human beings and revenge. Is it right to revenge for great injustices? How far can you go? Should people pay for things they did when they were young? If not, how can the person the injustices has concerned move on with his/her life?

The British Book Challenge: If I was asked to name the most British person alive I knew, I think I would say Stephen Fry. He is intelligent, has high education, is the master of the British humour, and I would be shocked to find out he doesn't drink tea. The Star's Tennis Balls is set mostly in Britain, and tells about the British upper class. The observations of it are told through Ashley Barson-Garland, a boy who is from a lower class and tries to blend in among the public school boys. I certainly think there is something very British about this novel.