Moab Is My Washpot

Stephen Frys autobiography, covers the first 20 years of his life. He is candid about his many weaknesses, including stealing, cheating and lying. The book covers some of the same ground as in his 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'. Stephen Fry also writes about his older brother Roger, Bunce (the new boy at his prep school, Stouts Hill), Jo Wood, (his best friend at Uppingham), and Oliver Derwent, (a prefect who 'seduces' Fry). The title, while never explained in the text of the book, is a verse found in Psalm 60 and Psalm 108 (the latter being mainly a compilation of material from Psalms 57 and 60 but with a much more optimistic tone than either of those two). Jews in ancient times were extremely concerned with cleanliness. While wearing sandals in the dusty desert environment, their feet would become filthy, and upon entering a home they would be washed with water. They would not put their feet into the bowl, but instead hold their feet over the bowl and pour clean water over them, and the bowl would be used to catch the water. Moab, which had threatened Israel, was to be so completely subdued, and so became likened to a wash pot.

Softcover. English. Arrow Books. 2004. ISBN: 9780099457046. 448. Good. Book No: 57965