My Review for Stephen Fry in America

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. In September 2021 we have a 5-week road trip booked in America, flying to Atlanta, Georgia and travelling South, then West, then North a bit and finally East, back to Atlanta!  Whether this will happen in September 2021 remains to be seen as currently (June 2021) we still aren’t allowed to travel there from the UK.   Never mind, we will get there eventually, I tell myself!  If you are reading this and there is also a post on this blog for the trip, then we made it at some point!  In the meantime I thought I would get myself in the mood, so we watched BBC1’s ‘Stephen Fry in America’ and I decided to listen to the audiobook too.

In his own inimitable style, with wry humour and enthusiasm, Stephen tells us of his journey across the 50 (or 51 - I’m still not sure) states of the United States of America in an English, black taxi cab, collecting fridge magnets as he goes!  

Stephen meets and talks to fascinating people, views wondrous landscapes and mingles into small-town life, taking Thanksgiving dinner with a family on a plantation.  All throughout his journey (which takes about 8 months in total) Stephen transported us into the days and weeks alongside him. As he describes each state in such detail, we can almost imagine we are there with him.

The audiobook was so, so much better than the television series. There was more content, more detail and a lot, lot more humour.  I’m guessing that if I’d read the actual book, the same content would have been there, probably with photographs too, but I wouldn’t have had Stephen’s dulcet tones, speaking to me directly for 8 hours and this made it even more appealing.

I would definitely recommend Stephen Fry in America for anyone who has the slightest interest in the United States, for me who loves the country. It was a simple decision.  I don’t know why I hadn’t sought out the book before now.