The first ever intimate portrait of Britain's best-loved, but little known, comedy entertainer, this fully authorized, biography of comedian Tommy Cooper shows the man behind the laughter that few people saw. Until his tragic death on live television in 1984, Tommy Cooper lived in constant fear of the day he would be found out by his audience. He could never accept the accolades that came so thick and fast from every direction, and died to the sounds of laughter that he never really believed. Supplementing his own intimate knowledge with material accessed for the first time from the archives of Cooper's agent and manager, Miff Ferrie, and with the full co-operation of the Cooper family, John Fisher's warm, honest, and insightful writing skillfully brings alive the man behind the comedic mask in this definitive biography of a comedy legend.