Andy Miller

But at least the subject of the conversation is one that you are deeply familiar with and sympathetic to.

Well, one assumes sympathetic to, Stephen.

I watched the film again the other night.

Me too.

I barely looked at Jude Law.

I was transfixed, Stephen.

Without, as it were, blowing smoke, it is a really extraordinary performance.

Hello and welcome to Backlisted, the podcast that gives new life to old books.

Today you find us peering into a narrow, whitewashed cell in a provincial English jail.

It is March 1897.

Seated at the tiny desk is a tall, gaunt man dressed in prison uniform.

Drab, coarse trousers, blue worsted stockings, heavy boots, a loose jacket and vest bearing the number C33 on his back.

His hair is close cropped and pokes out from beneath a grey and red cap printed all over with crow's foot arrows.

In front of him is a single sheet of foolscap paper resting on a coarsely bound notebook.

He picks up his pen and begins to write.

I'm John Mitchinson.

And I'm Andy Miller, and as you may have realised, we are delighted to be joined today in real life in the same room by Stephen Fry.

Hello, Stephen.

Stephen is an actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer.

To focus just on his literary achievements, he is the author of five novels, three volumes of autobiography and numerous non-fiction works that stretch from the retelling of Greek myths to classical music, mammalian conservation, English prosody and, as of last November, his own remarkable collection of neckties.