10 captivating factual reads

EDDIE IZZARD never does anything by halves.

He has performed comedy in numerous languages in massive stadiums where previously only rock stars ventured, ran 27 marathons in 27 days and played royalty opposite Dame Judi Dench in forthcoming movie Victoria & Abdul. But his latest project may be his most challenging yet.

The cross-dressing comedian, actor and writer – who originally wanted to join the SAS – has penned his memoir. And it’s a keen insight into what drives him.

“We’ve got one life. Let’s live it positively, rather than Donald Trump, who’s living it negatively,” says the star who, after 2020, wants to run for Parliament for the Labour Partyin whichever constituency will have him.

Izzard, 55, is tough. The son of BP’s chief accountant Harold Izzard, his mother Dorothy Ella died from bowel cancer when he was six, but his parents hadn’t told him she was dying and he wasn’t prepared.

Soon after he and his brother were sent to boarding school. He reveals: “We didn’t see dad for two-thirds of the year. I did a lot of crying and wailing.”

But he adds: “Boarding school toughens you up. It can make you emotionally dead because you are emotionally blocked, but you are tough.”

After leaving school, he started an accounting and financial management degree and took his first steps into comedy, staging his first show at the Edinburgh Festival in 1981. He had been wanting to wear dresses since he was four or five but remained a closet transgender, although he never felt repressed.

“If you’re a straight transvestite and you fancy girls, it’s not a big deal. You can have relationships – just don’t mention you’re transgender.”

There followed lean years in London doing street comedy and eventually ‘coming out’ in 1984, often suffering abuse as a result.

“It sort of made me in the end,” he says. “It’s such a hard thing to do. Now I’m as calm in boy mode as I am in girl mode. For a long time, if I was in girl mode I was more tense, more nervous.”

But Izzard is not so forthcoming about his girlfriends past and present. “I do have a relationship now but I’m not telling you about it because it’s their wish. I’ve said many times I want to have kids.”

But he is prepared to put his showbiz career on hold should he become an MP. “This is just the beginning of another chapter.”