''Moab Is My Washpot'' (published 1997) is

Stephen Fry Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...

's autobiography, covering the first 20 years of his life. In the book, Fry is candid about his past indiscretions, including stealing, cheating and lying. The book covers some of the same ground as in Fry's first novel, '' The Liar'', published in 1991. In that work, public schoolboy Adrian Healey falls in love with a boy called Hugo Cartwright; in the autobiography, 14-year-old Fry becomes besotted with 13-year-old "Matthew Osborne". Fry also writes about his older brother Roger, Bunce (the new boy at his prep school,

Stouts Hill Stouts Hill is an 18th-Century Gothic revival country house situated in the Cotswolds, just outside the village of Uley. Although there are records of one Adam le Stut settled here in the 13th century, the present house, built for the Gy ...

), Jo Wood (his best friend at

Uppingham Uppingham is a market town in Rutland, England, off the A47 between Leicester and Peterborough, south of the county town, Oakham. It had a population of 4,745 according to the 2011 census, estimated at 4,853 in 2019. It is known for its ...

), and Oliver Derwent (a prefect who "seduces" Fry).

Title

The title, never explained in the text of the book, is a verse found in

Psalm 60 Psalm 60 is the 60th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "O God, thou hast cast us off, thou hast scattered us". In the slightly different numbering system of the Greek Septuagint version of the Bible and ...

and Psalm 108. Through wearing sandals, people's feet would become filthy in the dusty desert environment and upon entering a home feet would be washed with water by pouring water over them into a washpot. Moab, which had threatened Israel, was to be so completely subdued, that it became likened to a wash pot or basin. This title was selected because Fry saw the book as "scrubbing at the grime of years". Fry, being a fervent P.G. Wodehouse fan (having written a foreword to a "Best of" compilation of his works, and having played Jeeves in the British comedy series on his works), is likely to have been inspired by a quote from

Uncle Fred Frederick Altamont Cornwallis Twistleton, 5th Earl of Ickenham, commonly known as Uncle Fred, is a fictional character who appears in comedic short stories and novels written by P. G. Wodehouse between 1935 and 1961. An energetic and mischievous ol ...

mentioning Pongo Twistleton's exploits in the novel ''

Uncle Dynamite ''Uncle Dynamite'' is a novel by P.G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 22 October 1948 by Herbert Jenkins, London and in the United States on 29 November 1948 by Didier & Co., New York.McIlvaine (1990), pp. 82–83, A68. It fe ...

'':

Matthew Osborne

In a 2001 article for the ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'', Andrew Billin wrote that Fry was reunited with "Osborne" after the publication of the book:

Many pages of the deepest purple are devoted to this Matthew Osborne, "the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life". I ask if the pseudonymous Matthew, with whom he eventually achieved some form of splendour in the long grass, had been in touch since the book came out in 1997. He had. How did he take it? "Very well. He is very happily married with children. A wonderful chap and hugely successful as it happens," Fry chuckles, incredulous. "I think his wife knows because she is extremely friendly to me in a way that suggests to me she knows all about it and is very happy with it. I see him a couple of times a year, I suppose."

References

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External links

{{Stephen Fry British autobiographies 1997 non-fiction books Books by Stephen Fry Show business memoirs