Mr Strangelove : a biography of Peter Sellers

Peter Sellers had many characters - from the Goons to Being There's Chaunce the Gardener via Inspector Clouseau - and his anarchic comedy still influences comics like Mike Myers.

Yet Sellers, who could mimic anyone and don any mask, was convinced that he was empty; that there was no personal substance beneath the characters he so readily assumed.Ed Sikov has spoken to many of those who knew and worked with Sellers, including Sophia Loren, Maggie Smith, Goldie Hawn, Dudley Moore, John Cleese and Roman Polanski.

In this in-depth life, he reveals how Sellers used his creative craziness to stave off the darker and more debilitating madness that plagued him, his public face hiding a sometimes tormented private life with four marriages (and three divorces), countless affairs, and drug and alcohol abuse.