Dip My Brain in Joy: A Life With Neil Innes: The Official Biography

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THE OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY OF NEIL INNES, SONGWRITING POWERHOUSE AND ‘SEVENTH PYTHON’, BY THE PERSON CLOSEST TO HIM

Nominated for the Chortle Comedy Awards 2025

‘A lovely writer and performer. A very sweet man, much too nice for his own good…’ – John Cleese

‘He was a great writer and he was eccentric and he was clever without being pretentious’ – Sir Michael Palin

Few individuals have had such an impact on British culture over the past fifty years as the comedy and music icon Neil Innes.

He was the songwriting powerhouse of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah band. Beatles muse and collaborator. Injector of art college surrealism into 1960s TV comedy. Instigator of a revolution that led directly to Monty Python, the group he repeatedly joined on screen and stage. He was Ron Nasty, co-founder of the much-loved Rutles, the ‘pre-fab four’. Accidental inventor of the phrase ‘Cool Britannia’. Much-loved children’s TV storyteller, thinker, maker, creator, undisputed national treasure and Britain’s sweet idiot laureate.

And through it all, Neil remained one of the kindest and brightest individuals in showbusiness. Musicians, comedians and fans alike loved being around Neil. He created music and joy and art wherever he went. And the person who loved having him round more than anybody else was Yvonne. Neil and Yvonne met at Goldsmiths College in the 1960s and they went on to walk hand-in-hand through life for over fifty years, until Neil’s untimely death in 2019.

This book is a heartfelt, eyewitness tale of the life of one of British culture’s quiet geniuses. It is tribute to life inside the circus, with the gentlest and wisest of clowns.