Mary Austin, Freddie Mercury’s former fiancée who has spent years safeguarding his legacy: ‘Our love was much more powerful than I ever realized’

Mary Austin has published *A Life in Lyrics*, a collection of Freddie Mercury’s handwritten lyrics, photographs and notes found among belongings at his former home. She says the book honours him as both a lyricist and a person, and reflects her long commitment to safeguarding the memory of the man she still calls the love of her life.

Austin met Mercury in 1970 and they lived together for almost eight years; he later left her Garden Lodge and his possessions when he died in 1991. Lyrics to songs including *Bohemian Rhapsody*, *Killer Queen* and *Don’t Stop Me Now* were found in an attic trunk, while other material was discovered in a piano bench in 2022. Now 75, Austin says she plans to sell the west London house where she has lived for more than three decades.