Stephen Fry

Comedian, actor, broadcaster, and a writer whose books are essentially the same voice as his conversation, which is either delightful or exhausting depending on the reader.

Mythos, Heroes and Troy retell Greek myth with the digressions left in. Moab Is My Washpot covers a childhood that included expulsion, prison for credit card fraud and Cambridge afterwards, and is much harder than the public persona suggests. Fry has spoken about his bipolar disorder, and about the breakdown that nearly ended him, more openly than almost anyone of comparable fame, and the documentary he made about it changed how British broadcasting handled the subject.