A flick through the secret life of Barry Humphries

Geordie Greig recalls the obsessions of his friend and the comic behind Dame Edna Everage as his extraordinary collection of books and art goes on sale at Christie’s

- Geordie Greig

"I will be just a minute," Barry Humphries, aka Dame Edna Everage, would tell his wife as he snuck downstairs to one of his many book-lined rooms - where he would remain for hours, poring over and purring with delight at his extraordinary collection of rare finds. In his north London home, he lived the life of a bibliomaniac, obsessively collecting books and manuscripts, particularly literary treasures from the 1890s. As many as 7,000 tomes crowded groaning shelves, spilled over and under tables, tumbled out of boxes, and towered in precarious piles.

His home, which he shared with writer Lizzie Spender, daughter of poet Stephen Spender, was a treasure trove of books and art. This was his private stage, shaped by his forensic and unstoppable addiction to books, which competed for space with his Dame Edna frocks and signature spectacles.

Humphries was also an insatiable art collector. On Friday 13 February, nearly two years after he died at the age of 89, the first of several sales of his astonishing book and art collection will take place.

This will be a rare insight into the mind and mania of Barry the collector; a chance to access the hidden private man who was as secretive about his hunger for rare books as he was flamboyant and fabulous at conquering TV and stage as the world’s most formidable showman.

His books were his inner life. Parcel after parcel would arrive at his home, containing anything from an inscribed copy by a minor poet to extraordinary works by literary giants.