Page 43 of Paperweight


  The houselights fade down.

  I was going to tell you about God’s …

  Silence. BROOKSHAW looks in despair around what to him is now an empty form-room. He takes out CLARKE’s letter, looks at it and turns to the desk. He starts to write a letter, speaking as he does so. The audience should notice fully for the first time that the blackboard is covered with childish scrawl: ‘Puer magistrum amat. Magister puerum amat. The boy loves the master loves the boy loves the master. Dominus rupertum amat. Rupert dominum amat. Brookshaw fucks figs. Matron eats smegma. etc. etc.’

  BROOKSHAW. To Ghanim Ibn Mahmud and Abu Hassan Basim, from Herbert Brookshaw M.A., Greetings! Thank you for your letter. I hope you are well. You mentioned that you were able to obtain Moroccan nationality in a hurry … (Continues writing as the lights fade) … I would be most grateful if you could send me details of how I might do the same. I have a not inconsiderable sum saved against …

  Fade to BLACKOUT. The sound of a SCHOOLBOY singing the Nunc Dimittis turns into the Muezzin’s Call to Prayer.

  CURTAIN

  1Or bicycle-pump or photograph of the Queen Mother or whatever strikes as outré.

  This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

  Version 1.0

  Epub ISBN 9781409037767

  www.randomhouse.co.uk

  Reissued in 2004 by Arrow Books

  9 10

  Copyright © Stephen Fry 1992

  The right of Stephen Fry to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

  First published in the United Kingdom in 1992 by William Heinemann First published in paperback in the United Kingdom in 1993 by Mandarin

  Arrow Books

  The Random House Group Limited

  20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V 2SA

  www.rbooks.co.uk

  Addresses for companies within The Random House Group Limited can be found at: www.randomhouse.co.uk/offices.htm

  The Random House Group Limited Reg. No. 954009

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  ISBN 9780099457022

 


 

  Stephen Fry, Paperweight

 


 

 
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