40 Years of Brian May

The “new” May is generally adept at combining in one seamless thread his past, present and future. “There are still moments when I want to get on with my life,” he concedes, sipping at a glass of water, “but, on the whole, I accept that Queen will always be part of me. It’s like you have built this beautiful house and one day you have to move out of it, but you don’t stop enjoying looking at it now and again. You just don’t want to live in it any more.”

There again is that endearing humility about May. He appears anxious, at all stages, not to talk himself up or claim some innate talent. “I’ve always worked very hard at everything I’ve done,” he emphasises.

His current writing project – on astronomy – is with his great friend, 88 year-old Sir Patrick Moore. Occasionally he does guest appearances on Sir Patrick’s long-running television series The Sky at Night. Another contributor once remarked that far from looking like an archetypal rock star, May was the spitting image of Isaac Newton.