Which celebrity would you love to meet, and what would you talk about?
If I could meet any celebrity for an afternoon, I’d rather like to sit down with Stephen Fry.
Now, before you start imagining me arriving with a list of carefully prepared questions, darling, let me stop you there.
I’ve never been particularly good at sticking to a script when there’s an interesting conversation to be had.
I’d probably arrive with a notebook, ask for a cup of tea, and forget to open the notebook entirely.
What would we talk about?
Language, for a start.
I’ve always been fascinated by the way words change over time. How a perfectly ordinary expression can fall out of fashion, only to sound wonderfully elegant when somebody brings it back.
I suspect we’d have a lively discussion about the English language, its peculiarities, and why some words deserve to be rescued from the attic and given another outing.
I’d probably confess that I occasionally use expressions that make people look at me as though I’ve just stepped out of a black-and-white film.
And then we’d get onto humour.
Not simply what makes us laugh, but why.
How a well-placed word can turn an ordinary observation into something unforgettable. How humour can expose hypocrisy, soften an awkward moment, or allow us to discuss something difficult without making everybody feel they’ve been summoned to the headteacher’s office.
I’d want to talk about storytelling, too.
How you create a character who feels as though she existed long before the reader met her. How you give somebody a history without having to explain every detail. How a gesture, a turn of phrase, or a passing reference can tell us more about a person than three paragraphs of biography.
And I would absolutely ask him whether he thinks we’ve become too concerned with saying the right thing and forgotten how to have an honest conversation.
Not an argument in which everybody arrives determined to win.
A conversation in which people are curious enough to discover something they didn’t know before.
Because that’s what I’d really want from an afternoon with somebody like Stephen Fry.
Not a photograph to show everybody afterwards.
Not an autograph to frame.
I’d want to leave the table having learned something, laughed about something, and perhaps looked at something familiar from a slightly different angle.
Of course, there’s every possibility he’d find me utterly exhausting.
I do have a tendency to ask one question, discover three more hiding inside the answer, and wander off down a conversational side street without warning.
But I’d like to think we’d manage.
And if the conversation ran on for hours?
Well, darling, there’s always another pot of tea.
Although I might have to ask him to sign my notebook on the way out.
One must have some evidence that one has spent the afternoon behaving like an absolute nuisance in the company of a national treasure.
Stay Fabulous,
Luce 💋
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