Photo: Steve Forrest/Rex Features
Britain’s best-loved bookish eccentric, techy Twitterer and fantasy uncle (imagine the Christmas party games!) Stephen Fry has long worn his Oscar Wilde-loving heart on his sleeve. Brian Gilbert’s 1997 film Wilde saw Fry cast as the exuberant author, and recently he noted the formative influence of Wilde’s work in his navigating that pot-hole riddled road between awkward adolescence and a more assured adulthood relatively unbruised.
In 1973, a 16-year-old Stephen Fry penned a letter to his middle-aged self (published in 1997′s autobiography Moab is my Washpot) and in response to his teenage self Fry recently wrote, via The Guardian:
“I know what you are doing now, young Stephen. It’s early 1973. You are in the library, cross-referencing bibliographies so that you can find more and more examples of queer people in history, art and literature against whom you can hope to validate yourself. Leonardo, Tchaikovsky, Wilde, Barons Corvo and von Gloeden… So many great spirits really do confirm that hope! It emboldens you to know that such a number of brilliant (if often doomed) souls shared the same impulse and desires as you.”
And now Fry’s calling the rest of us over to the Wilde side with him, having just selected his favourite Oscar Wilde stories for a new collection acquired by Harper Collins. The collection’s as yet untitled, but The Bind gathers that it’s due to be published in October, in hardback (yum) and in addition to 33 mouth-watering illustrations by Nicole Stewart. Fry will also be penning a general introduction to the collection, and foreword to each of the stories.
Oh, and as if we needed any more reason to launch efforts to trace our lineage to the Fry family tree, today saw the kick-off of the second series of Fry’s English Delight on Radio 4. The programme title? ‘So Wrong it’s Right’. In reference to my level of excitability over your new show, Stephen, how very correct you are.
Thanks Amy
that would be great
it goes out mid September
with best wishes
Adam
Dear Amy
I wondered if you might like a mutual link to both my Foreign word site and my English word website or press release details of my ensuing book with Penguin Press on amusing and interesting English vocabulary?
http://www.thewonderofwhiffling.com
with best wishes
Adam Jacot de Boinod
(author of The Meaning of Tingo)
(www.themeaningoftingo.com)
adamjacot@fastmail.co.uk
or wish to include:
1) THE MEANING OF TINGO
When photographers attempt to bring out our smiling faces by asking us
to “Say Cheese”, many countries appear to follow suit with English
equivalents. In Spanish however they say patata (potato), in Argentinian Spanish whisky, in French steak frites, in Serbia ptica (bird) and in
Danish appelsin (orange). Do you know of any other varieties from around the world’s languages? See more on http://www.themeaningoftingo.com
2) THE WONDER OF WHIFFLING
The Wonder of Whiffling is a tour of English around the globe (with fine
coinages from our English-speaking cousins across the pond, Down Under
and elsewhere).
Discover all sorts of words you’ve always wished existed but never knew,
such as fornale, to spend one’s money before it has been earned; cagg, a solemn vow or resolution not to get drunk for a certain time; and
petrichor, the pleasant smell that accompanies the first rain after a
dry spell.
Delving passionately into the English language, I also discover why it
is you wouldn’t want to have dinner with a vice admiral of the narrow
seas, why Jacobites toasted the little gentleman in black velvet, and
why a Nottingham Goodnight is better than one from anywhere else. See
more on http://www.thewonderofwhiffling.com
with best wishes
Adam
Hi Adam,
Thanks very much for getting in touch. What a fantastic book! And great illustrations, too. I’d be honoured to pop a link to your site up on my blog, and it would be great to have one in return (my first – I am still rather new to this blogging lark.) All the best with both the site and the book – I’ll ‘keep my eyes peeled’ (origin?) for it, and will definitely blog about close to the publication date. When’s it pencilled in to hit the shelves?
All the best
Amy