Stephen Fry abandons Twitter but soon returns

Will he, won't he? Stephen Fry, the comedian and senior member of the Twitocracy, threatened at the weekend to stop using the micro-blogging site Twitter after a Birmingham correspondent accused him of becoming a bore with his constant tweets. "Think I may have to give up Twitter. Too much aggression and unkindness around. Pity," Fry wrote on Saturday.

Then, in a direct response to BrumPlum, he added: "You've convinced me. I'm obviously not good enough. I retire from Twitter henceforward. Bye everyone."

However, by Sunday, having apparently cleared his head with a flight to Los Angeles, he was back online, tweeting: "Arrived in LA feeling very foolish. Wasn't the fault of the fellow who called me 'boring', BTW. A mood thing. Sunshine will help. So sorry."

To which his fans responded in their thousands, welcoming him back. Typical was Twitter user GracieMcKenna, who wrote: "I'm so pleased that Stephen Fry is not leaving Twitter! He adds too much to go. (((Hugs))) to you Stephen."

What upset Fry, who has been credited with being "almost single-handedly" responsible for the proliferation of Twitter in the UK, was a tweet in which BrumPlum wrote "I admire and adore" Fry but went on to say he found his tweets "a bit... boring... (sorry Stephen)".

This came after Fry had led the online charge against Daily Mail columnist Jan Moir for her outspoken views on the death of Boyzone singer Stephen Gately, published on the eve of the singer's funeral.

Fry's furious response to Moir's column - in which he called her "a repulsive nobody writing in a paper no one of any decency would be seen dead with" - led to a record number of approaches to the Press Complaint Commission.

However, Fry himself was clearly uncomfortable with the avalanche of invective he had created with his tweet, and in a longer blog posted on October 19, questioned whether his tweeting was going too far. And so when BrumPlum made his "boring" accusation, the comedian was ready to quit. But not for long.