Tony Slattery has written a memoir, chronicling his battles with bipolar disorder and drug addiction.

Retrievals will be published on 1st September by Simon & Schuster, and is co-written with comedy historian Robert Ross.

Former Whose Line Is It Anyway? star Slattery signed the publishing deal following the 2020 BBC documentary What's The Matter With Tony Slattery?, in which he spoke candidly about his depression and substance abuse.

Describing the collaboration with Ross as "fun and fruitful" on Twitter, Slattery's first book promises to take the reader on a journey through his life and career, from growing up Catholic in a working-class family in north London and being abused as a child by a priest, to joining the Cambridge Footlights with Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson, Sandi Toksvig and Richard Vranch, embarking on a prolific career in comedy, then at the height of his fame in the 1990s developing a £4,000-a-week cocaine habit and having a public breakdown.

"I'm hoping the memoirs will be amazing" Slattery told the Daily Express in 2020. "Well, if I get my brain together they will be. My short-term memory isn't good but I think booze has a lot to do with that."

Looking back had been "very therapeutic. It helps to trigger words and scenarios and memories" said the Peter's Friends star, who won the inaugural Perrier Award at the 1981 Edinburgh Fringe with The Footlights. "I can't remember what I did yesterday and I won't remember being here but I can remember verbatim at any point at any time before yesterday."

However, the 62-year-old admitted to conflicting feelings about the BBC film.

"I thought, 'This isn't going to do me any favours'" he reflected. "And, of course, it hasn't. I did it because I thought it might do some good. Not from a career point of view because that was, let's be frank, at a standstill."

Nevertheless, he felt it made a positive contribution to making other people with depression realise they were not alone.

[o]Simon & Schuster] published Bob Mortimer's bestselling autobiography And Away... last year, which has made around £4million. The publisher has previously put out memoirs by the likes of Fast Show star Simon Day, as well as novels by Ben Miller, Russell Kane and Mark Watson.

Ross's books include the Monty Python Encyclopaedia and biographies of Frankie Howerd, Benny Hill, Marty Feldman and Terry-Thomas.

Retrievals is available to pre-order.