The Stars' Tennis Balls - Signed - First Edition

Signed with inscription 'For Sarah with lots of love and a dozen turd-stools Stephen Fry 28th July 2000' first edition. Dust jacket in near fine condition, not price clipped or faded, some minimal bumping to the edges with a small tear on the base of the front cover. Book in near fine condition no spine lean, some minimal bumping to the edges of the spine, boards clean, corners square, text block and pages clean but slightly yellowed. The story of a very nice young man called Ned Maddstone who, 20 years after being seized outside a Knightsbridge language college and thrown into solitary confinement as a political prisoner, returns to London implacably focused upon revenge. Ned Maddstone has it all. He's handsome and talented; he has the love of a beautiful woman and in 1980, he stands at the brink of a glittering future. He rounds off an outstanding public school career with a sailing trip to Scotland, which is where his fortunes enter a terrifying tailspin. Determined to honour the dying wish of his sailing instructor, Ned returns to London, where the schemes of jealous classmates catapult him into a 10-year nightmare. Confined to a solitary Hell, believed dead by all those who loved him, Ned transforms from a terminally nice guy into a creature bent on revenge, a revenge both satisfying and apocalyptic. Few writers can deliver so much in one package, but here Stephen Fry combines a riotous satire of the privileged classes with elements of the darkest thrillers. While the plot bounces from the sublime to the surreal, his characters remain acutely real. Ned's classmates, slow-witted hedonist Rufus Cade, and the Machiavellian climber Ashley Barson-Garland--who is aroused by the sight of straw boaters--are masterful creations. This novel has nothing to do with tennis, and everything to do with the cruel logic of Fate.…