Lost autobiography to be published this year

Marty Feldman’s memoirs are to be published - more than 30 years after his death.

His unpublished biography was discovered in his former Los Angeles home by nightclub owner Mark Flanagan, who inherited the property from Feldman’s widow, Lauretta.

Flanagan told the Sunday Times: ‘It’s Marty’s story from his impoverished childhood in East London in the 1930s to all the famous people he knew, like David Frost, John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Eric Idle.’

One farcical story in the book tells of how Feldman and Peter Cook – both drunk – once broke into artist Francis Bacon’s home to return a painting Lauretta had wrongly believed had been stolen from him.

Feldman died of a heart attack in Mexico in 1982, at the age of 48.

Publishers Coronet say Feldman finished, and set aside Eye Marty soon before travelling to Mexico – and say he was ‘haunted by the notion’ of his own death.

A spokesman said: ‘The book is exactly as Feldman wrote it, his great friend Mark Flanagan, had it transcribed, with even the photos inserted where Feldman had noted where they should go.'

The book, entitled Eye Marty, will be published in November. Click here to preorder.

Published: 4 May 2014