STEPHEN FRY

Indeed it is intriguing that Stephen does keep coming back to these espionage themes. I'm not sure that espionage is the constant here though! I think it is a tussle with political power which could be his preoccupation if indeed he recognises it as such. Making History for instance reflects, for me, an interesting meddling in the developement of history. Almost a longing to change the world, to rid history of the menace of facism, even if it's only inside ones head. The realisation dawns however that reality cannot be altered and that we have to address the world as it is and work to change society in this universe as we are, metaphorically speaking, stuck with it. The book deals with power, the power to change the world, to struggle against those forces, those powers which do harm to human beings and ultimatley the earth.

The Stars Tennis balls is the story of revenge. Getting your own back against those powerful forces which at times cannot be seen. To overcome these forces we have to learn how they, the rulers, think and adopt the right stratergies to destroy them. Understand your enemy, play their game and turn their rules against them. Espionage is there of course, behind the scenes, plotting, manipulating, but these are human symptoms of the corrupt and rotten system that enslaves and kills. The theme of political and economic power comes to the fore for me.

Still!!


Dont know Who Dumas-pere is! Can you Explain? Give a synopsis perhaps?

The Liar does have some strong espionage themes though but I think his leading paradigm was paranoia if I remember correctly. It's about ten years since I read it and that is the imppresion I am left with!

Ah-Ha! The penny drops!

Thanks for the different perspective. I hadn't thought of the book in them terms.

I guess the modern spin on the original just lost me off! However the story for me stands on it's own as the similies, although present, are far enough apart to have been missed. Personaly speaking of course.

Are any of Stephen's other novels re-writes or re-workings in any way?

Moscow.

Maybe when it comes to war espionage, yes, but I think the Cold War espionage attitudes were rather better summed up by Pratchett and Gaiman, whne they wrote "Good Omens."

Actually, I may be wrong here, but I believe most British spy fiction is about counter-espionage. The Eastern bloc villains were spies, but the "heroes" were those trying to stop them.

Ditto for Moscow. It's infinitely easier to invent an evil foreign spy and put him where *you* live than to go visit evil foreigner abroad in cities you've never been allowed to visit or even read that much about.

There was an interesting portrayal in an episode of the Ben Elton/Rowan Atkinson police comedy show "The Thin Blue Line". There was a suave, tuxedoed British agent (obviously an imitation of James Bond) whose role was to infiltrate an environmentalists' road protest and provoke them into action which would get them arrested. It was not a superb show, but that episode showed an awareness of the dirtier side of British intelligence in recent years.

I take such issue with Bond portrayals... don't even get me started. People just don't seem to get that a good agent - a really, really good agent - will be almost by default a) short or of average height, b) possibly overweight, c) very probably female and dowdy. Why, that's not very spy-like at all, you might say. That sounds more like my mum or the organist from my church. EXACTLY! The point of the spy isn't to be dashing and athletic - it's to be under everyone's radar!

Not that the Russian "Bond" was any less guilty of this. The most popular fictional spy in USSR, Colonel Isaev/ Standartenführer Stirlitz, was just as "Bondy" as Bond, another tall, lithe, handsome brunet with a piercing gaze. The wiki has a good run-down of his character:

"Stirlitz was regarded as the ideal KGB agent. Born in Russian heartland (a town of Gorokhovets mistakenly placed "on the Volga river" in the feature), he was a renaissance man who knew how to complete missions but was also familiar with high culture. He spoke all European languages except Irish and Albanian. He favored the intellectual approach over violence and is believed to have killed only one time in his fifty year career as an agent. Like James Bond, he had a favorite drink, cognac. He drove a Horch car and was not as taken by women as Bond, declining the offer of some supposedly attractive prostitutes with the rejoinder "I'd rather drink some coffee." During his constant travels, Stirlitz missed Russia and longed to return."