Tall tales: The Big Yin to publish autobiography
Sir Billy Connolly has revealed a plan to publish his first ever autobiography just weeks after making his final TV appearance.
Sir Billy Connolly has revealed a plan to publish his first ever autobiography just weeks after making his final TV appearance.
The Scottish comedy legend will chart his remarkable life and a career as an entertainer which spanned more than half a century.
His publisher said the autobiography, Windswept and Interesting, would be a “wise, heartfelt, opinionated and hugely funny book ”.
Sir Billy, 78, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease eight years ago, has announced the autobiography after bowing out with a final TV special broadcast over the festive season, which was filmed at his home in Florida.
The new book is due to be published in October, nearly two decades after a best-selling biography by the Glasgowborn star’s wife, Pamela Stephenson.
Publisher Two Roads has announced plans for the autobiography in the wake of the success of a collection of Sir Billy’s comedy routines, Tall Tales & Wee Stories, which has sold more than 600,000 copies in under 18 months.
The new book will see the star, an apprentice welder in the Clyde shipyards when he left school, recall how he rose from Glasgow’s folk music scene to stand-up comedy before finding fame with a celebrated appearance on Michael Parkinson’s chat show in 1975.
The autobiography is also expected to see Sir Billy reflect on his troubled upbringing in Glasgow, where he was brought up by two of his aunts, and the sexual abuse he suffered at he hands of his father as a teenager.
The book is also likely to touch on his struggle with illness after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s and cancer in 2013 and his decision to stop performing live in 2018.
Connolly said of the new book, due to be be launched in October, said: “It’s the first time I’ve done this. Other people have written about me – or for me – but this time it’s just my own life in my own words.
“I didn’t know I was windswept and interesting until somebody told me. I had long hair and a beard and was swishing around in electric blue flairs. He said: ‘Look at you – all windswept and interesting!” I just said: “Exactly!” After that, I simply had to maintain my reputation.”