Moab Is My Washpot Moab Is My Washpot Moab Is My Washpot (published 1997) is Stephen Fry's autobiography, covering the first 20 years of his life. In the book, Fry is candid about his past indiscretions, including stealing, cheating and lying. The book covers some of the same ground as in Fry's 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". Fry also writes about his older brother Roger, Bunce (the new boy at his prep school, Stouts Hill),
Moab Is My Washpot years". Fry, being a fervent P.G. Wodehouse fan (having written a foreword to a "Best of" compilation of his works, and having played Jeeves in the British comedy series on his works), is likely to have been inspired by a quote from Uncle Fred mentioning Pongo Twistleton's exploits in the book Uncle Dynamite:"Pongo," said Lord Ickenham, "is in terrific form. He bestrides the world like a Colossus. It would not be too much to say that Moab is his washpot and over what's-its-name has he cast his shoe. ..." In a 2001 article for the "Evening Standard", Andrew Billin wrote