“The pen is mightier than the sword and considerably easier to write with.”

Mike Myers thinks he was ‘a genius’, while John Cleese regards him as ‘a true cultural icon’. A pioneer of comedy, he died aged only 48. His name was Marty Feldman, and here, at last, is the first ever biography (Titan Books, October 25, 2011 $25.99).

Paving the way for Monty Python, then becoming a major Hollywood star, Marty will be forever remembered as Igor in Mel Brook’s Young Frankenstein.

Acclaimed author Rob Ross draws from previously unpublished interviews with Marty, taped in preparation for an autobiography he never wrote, alongside new interviews with many of Marty’s friends, including Michael Palin and Terry Jones, and his closest surviving relatives. No one before or since has had a career quite like Marty’s, from the dying days of variety theatre, via the behind-the-scenes scriptwriting triumphs of Round the Horne and The Frost Report to onscreen stardom in At Last the 1948 Show and his own hit series Marty, which led to transatlantic success, his work with Mel Brooks, and a five-picture deal to write and direct his own movies.