Lead Review
- Book: The Stars’ Tennis Balls
- Location: London
- Author: Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry narrates the audiobook and again, this has been a companion over several hours of lockdown walking. I was surprised to discover that the novel has actually been knocking around since the early 2000s and is a modern interpretation of the story of the Count of Monte Cristo. If you don’t know the ‘original’ story penned by Dumas in the mid 19th century, then don’t look it up. Just let yourself be led through Stephen Fry’s wonderful storytelling.
It is the 1980s and Ned Maddstone has found the love of his life – Portia – in his final Oxbridge year at school (guessing he’s a Harrovian). He is the son of a Tory MP and has the world at his feet. Portia is the daughter of long-haired lefties (who read the Morning Star) and who insist that their offspring call them by the Christian names. So it is already abundantly clear that the author is tinkering with class and politics before their story really gets into its element.
At school Guy has friends but these are friends who have issues – with him. He is guileless and he secures Ashley Barson Garson (or some such double-barrelled surname – this is the problem with audiobooks, you have no idea how the names are written) a job with his MP father. Gordon is Portia’s cousin and arrives unexpectedly from the States following the death of both his parents. There is a right motley and colourful gathering of characters in London.
It all kicks off when Ned is part of the school sailing team, on a boat where he is asked to deliver a top secret note by the dying skipper. As if witnessing near death isn’t traumatic enough, a stupid prank by the youngsters in London ensues and that sees Ned bundled off for a lengthy stint in a rather scary institution in the Kattegat area. But that is not the end of the story, his incarceration is only the beginning.
Stephen Fry has a light and well turned writing style. This book can be read on all kinds of levels from a simple enough story of revenge, to spotting the literary references that pepper the prose (the astute among you will know that the title derives from The Duchess of Malfi). As well as politics (and this was written well before the shenanigans around Brexit and sleaze, hard to believe to be honest), he takes on religion, mental health, learning, computer expertise (I was well impressed), gruesome violence and control; and the class system in England. He also examines the leverage over others that great wealth has, used for good and bad.
For anyone who wants to understand a little more about the vagaries of English class and society, then this novel is a great one to pick up. It is full of humour but it is also an incisive and intelligent look at the chosen themes. And frankly, a really good read!
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