The Fry Chronicles

I tried hard to resist The Fry Chronicles on Radio 4, the latest instalment from a man who has taken the Socratic idea about a life unexamined to heart. But it was of course perfectly pitched, intelligent, amusing and endearing. This week it was Stephen Fry's celibate years, in which an all-consuming passion for Apple Macintosh stood in for sex. It is amazing to hear that Fry lies awake reflecting on his lack of achievement. Where that leaves the rest of us just doesn't bear thinking.

We've had to wait 13 years for the second volume of Stephen Fry's autobiography, but thankfully this latest memoir is just as self-deprecatory and likeable as Moab is My Washpot. Here we get episodes from Fry's time at Cambridge plus his years of professional success (or "career harlotry" as he describes it) during the 1980s. As you'd expect from this period in the performer's life, the anecdotes are incredibly name-droppy. But Fry treats himself with such savagery and, at times, borderline contempt, that the result is never smug or supercilious. Which isn't to say that he stints on the laughs - indeed a passage about the pleasures of Radio 4 and going on Loose Ends with Ned Sherrin should be enough to inspire you to seek out the unabridged version.

Stephen Fry, the nation's favourite polymath, reads an abridgement of the latest volume of his autobiography as this week's featured book. It picks up the story from his previous memoir Moab Is My Washpot, which is to say: out of prison and heading for Cambridge University. It's beautifully written and read (Fry is a old pro in the audiobook world), shamelessly full of famous names, and a moving reminder of how university can turn things around for some people. But then, given the level of BBC publicity Fry attracts, you probably knew all of this already.