Writer Stephen Fry to disconnect with 'outside world'

British writer and actor Stephen Fry, a popular Twitter user, says he's cutting off his "connections with the outside world" in order to concentrate on the second instalment of his autobiography.

"I need peace, absolute peace, an empty diary and zero distraction," said the popular author on his website.

"All this is a way of saying, of course, that my Twitter stream will dry up for that period," said Fry about his numerous posts on the micro-blogging site.

The 52-year-old writer said it would be a temporary absence until he delivers to his publisher the second volume of his autobiography, due in April.

Fry said he hopes his Twitter followers, said to number one million, will "understand that this is a) imperative and b) temporary. I shall return."

The first part of Fry's autobiography, Moab Is My Washpot, was published in 1997.

It was a rollicking account of his childhood and troubled adolescence in which he served time in jail for fraud.

Hard time writing second volume

Last year he revealed that he was having trouble writing the second instalment because it would have to include people who are well-known, including fellow comedians and actors Hugh Laurie — the star of House — and Emma Thompson.

The trio were members of Cambridge University's Footlights comedy society.

"There is pressure. The trouble with it now, is the moment it starts, it would have to be at university and it would be Hugh and Emma and all that sort of thing," he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

"It becomes a showbiz biography and I'm keen for it not to be too much. Why would I want to involve people without their permission?"

Fry's many credits as an actor, writer and director include TV series such as Blackadder, Jeeves and Wooster and Absolute Power.

He portrayed Oscar Wilde in 1997's Wilde and has since appeared in various films, including Gosford Park, V for Vendetta and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.