of our time, writing scripts for comedies from "The Army Game" right through to colleborating on many of the Monty Python works - most notably, the Four Yorkshiremen being his creation.

But he was a contemporary of the Pythons, helped them out, started with them in their early TV appearances. So far the writing is unclear in that certain terms that are not in use lately aren't explained well.As a comedian who was falling of fame himself, this was clearly a project which would have had resonance with him. This cornucopia of random scribbling, family photos, Milliganesque poems, philosophical and political musings and insight into writing comedy explains Feldman's magpie-like mind. Some flaws are acknowledged in this period at the dreg-end, but in a way that’s anxious to prove that Marty’s comedy genius is still visibly radiating from them.

Another early Feldman sketch finds Cleese in a railway compartment irritated unto violence by the inane interruptions of his fellow passenger, a wing-collared Marty. From his youth as a tramp on the streets of London, to the height of his fame in America - where he encountered everyone from Orson Welles to Kermit the Frog, before his Hollywood dream became a nightmare - this is the fascinating story of a key figure in the history of comedy, fully told for the first time. English comedian Marty Feldman’s long lost autobiography is a joy to read – although tinged, of course, with the sadness that his far-too-young passing dictates.

The shame is it sounds like an interesting time but I can't understand half the story for the poorly described detail and the writing. Tanti, troppi dettagli sui contratti televisivi e radiofonici, dicevo, contrapposti a una scarsa capacità narrativa vera e propria: mancano le sequenze, ci sono salti temporali, non si capisce bene quando si svolgano certe situazioni e, se non fossero indicati gli anni in alcuni momenti, ci si troverebbe in un vero e proprio limbo narrativo. The autobiography is perhaps better appreciated if read in conjunction with Robert Ross's fine biography of the performer. Disjointedly, Ross details the well-liked Feldman’s rise to stardom as Eye-Gor in Young Frankenstein, his eventual disillusion with Hollywood, and his death from a heart attack during the filming of Yellowbeard. One of the nicest things, underlying the whole book, is Marty's love for his wife, Lauretta, and hers for him.

I'm not sure just why that is; the author was sympathetic to Marty and certainly included plenty of information, but somehow the timing was off for me. Marty proved popular enough with an international audience (the first series winning the Golden Rose Award at Montreux) to launch a film career. Il libro si rileva ricchissimo di aneddoti e riferimenti ad interviste di chi l'ha conosciuto e frequentato e un'occasione per ricordare questo ottimo attore, regista e sceneggiatore scomparso troppo presto, a soli 48 anni. Who else could describe Jesus Christ as not the kind of Jew who would be accepted by the Hampstead Garden Suburb. Throughout his testimony, he mocked the judge after it was implied that Feldman had no religion because he was not Christian.Towards the end of the book he gets more reflective about politics, religion and the absurdities of life.

Although his early performing career was undistinguished, Feldman became part of a comedy act—Morris, Marty and Mitch—who made their first television appearance on the BBC series Showcase in April 1955.It was a face that David Frost, one of his bosses, characterised as 'too grotesque' for television - see what Feldman has to say about Frost, and Francis Bacon, and John Lennon. Nevertheless, he generally did not seriously discuss politics in public, and once stated: "I feel it would be presumptuous for me to make any statements about American politics because I’m a guest here. Marty played the fool, often very happily and with tremendous talent and volcanic, anarchic energy, for his entire life.