Alexandra Coghlan

From precocious child to polymath – Stephen Hough’s life is full of singularity

The world-class musician describes his early desire to shock, his delight in the sensual, his life-changing relationship with Catholicism and, finally, his debut at Carnegie Hall

Stephen Hough. [Getty Images] 
issue 28 January 2023

At what point did the ponderous autobiography get edged out by the slinky elliptical memoir? Perhaps around the stage we all realised that, as Stephen Hough puts it, ‘a complete autobiography is usually boring or indecent. It’s the person at the dinner table who just won’t stop talking’.

There’s certainly no holding forth (though perhaps just a little indecency) here.

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