Billy: Wife has used all my best stories

Billy Connolly told today how being the subject of his wife’s acclaimed books was robbing him of his best anecdotes.

The comic and actor was profiled by his partner Pamela Stephenson for the biography Billy which was named book of the year in 2001.

But he says that now the latest volume is ready, he feels he has no stories left to tell that are not already in print.

Connolly, who is in London for the premiere of his latest film The Man Who Sued God, said: “She knows me better than any person alive. She knows my flaws and strengths and all that.

“But I told her I need some stuff for myself. Some of my stories I’d like to keep for myself to tell people and lie a bit, embellish them and let them grow.”

Stephenson’s next book will be published in October and called Bravemouth, a nickname for Connolly coined by Monty Python star Eric Idle.

“I was going to call my next tour Bravemouth but she got in their and stole it,” he said today.

Connolly said he was in awe of his wife’s writing abilities and of being able to remain focused on her subject.

“I’m completely incapable of that – she’s everything I’m not,” he added.

In his new film Connolly plays a former lawyer who takes action against the church when his boat is sunk by lightning but the insurance firm refuses to pay up for an act of God.