Mary Austin is publishing Freddie Mercury: A Life in Lyrics, using the handwritten lyrics Freddie Mercury left behind along with her own observations about their relationship. The book reaches readers with material she kept private for decades, including lyrics for Bohemian Rhapsody and other songs.
Four silver trunks from the attic
Four silver trunks sat in Austin’s attic from the mid-1980s until 2022, when she opened one and found Mercury’s handwritten lyrics inside. She said, “To say I was overwhelmed is an understatement”, then added, “I couldn't look at the lyrics.”
She asked her two sons to sift through the trunks for her. Austin said, “I felt as I did when I originally packed them – that they were his personal belongings and I was being offered an opportunity to delve into them, and I couldn’t do that.” The trunks held lyrics written for Don't Stop Me Now, Killer Queen, We Are the Champions and Bohemian Rhapsody.
Mary Austin and Freddie Mercury
Austin met Mercury in 1970 in London, when he was running a clothes and textile stall in Kensington Market in London. She was a friend of Brian May’s at the time. Mercury died in 1991 aged 45, and Austin has lived in his house for more than 30 years while holding half of his estate.
That mix of custody and distance is why this book lands with force. Austin has rarely spoken publicly about the relationship, yet the archive she kept now becomes the record she publishes. Mercury’s estate grew from an estimated £20-30m to around £150m, a jump that reflects how much value his name, catalog and legacy have carried across the 1980s and beyond.
Bohemian Rhapsody and the archive
The friction around Austin has never gone away. Queen fans have accused her of hoarding Mercury’s treasures and denying access to basic truths, including where his ashes were scattered. The book does not answer that question, but it does open a narrower one: how much of Mercury’s private life can be read through the lyrics he wrote and the papers Austin kept.
Freddie Mercury: A Life in Lyrics is the next step, and for readers it means the archive is no longer just a private inheritance. Austin is finally turning the most personal material over to the public, one page at a time, with the handwritten drafts doing the talking.
