Family ties with Stephen “Fry’s Ties” November 17, 2021 – Posted in: Writer

It is thrilling to be invited to sign copies of your book and recently Jarrolds in Norwich asked me to pop in and do just that.

Remembering last year’s lockdowns, it was especially exciting to see the city centre buzzing and the iconic department store’s book department busy with customers again.

The author signing

After I signed each book one of the Jarrold’s team placed a “signed by the author” sticker on the front and then the copies of “Gucci Wars – Jenny Gucci’s Story” were placed on a different display shelf… next to … Stephen “Fry’s Ties”.

Signed by the author – stickers on

As a long-standing fan of Stephen Fry, I could not have been happier with my books’ display companions.  Although he probably doesn’t know it, Stephen Fry and I are in fact one-time Norfolk neighbours – the farm where I was brought up is in the next village to West Bilney, where he has a beautiful home . Each time I drive past on the busy A47 I am tempted to stop and say hello. 

I could drop in many other connections – like the fact that my late uncle, Jack Kett, was Stephen’s first headmaster at Cawston Primary School (“He was always trouble… too clever for his own good”, he would later say) and that our parents were Aylsham friends. 

Stephen Fry’s latest book on the subject of ties rekindled  memories of my much loved grandfather. I well remember the burgundy and navy blue tie he always wore as recognition of his time in the Household Cavalry (Stephen inherited one too) and I especially enjoyed his anecdote surrounding the tie he wore many years ago as part of his uniform as “Mr Fry, the furniture sales assistant” in Bonds’ department store (now John Lewis) in Norwich. 

But I especially love the fact that Stephen Fry is – like me – a self-confessed Norfolk-phile. He is quoted as saying: “ You either get Norfolk, with its wild roughness and uncultivated oddities, or you don’t. It’s not all soft and lovely. It doesn’t ask to be loved.”

I totally agree. Remember you don’t go “through” Norfolk to reach anywhere else. Bordered by the North Sea, it is a final destination. I can’t speak for Stephen Fry, but – even if having Norfolk roots makes me an “uncultivated oddity” – I’m really happy to call this county my home.