26 Facts About Keith Floyd

Keith Floyd was a British celebrity cook, restaurateur, television personality and "gastronaut" who hosted cooking shows for the BBC and published many books combining cookery and travel.

Floyd was born at Folly Farm, Sulhamstead, near Reading, Berkshire, on 28 December 1943 to Sydney Albert Floyd and Winifred Phyllis Lorraine, nee Margetts.

Keith Floyd was brought up in a council house in the small town of Wiveliscombe in Somerset, where his mother grew up; he referred to his upbringing as "a very happy rural childhood".

Keith Floyd's family made financial sacrifices to enable him to be educated privately at Wellington School, Somerset; popular and a good rugby player, he was forced to leave at 16 due to lack of money.

Keith Floyd became a cub reporter on the Bristol Evening Post.

Keith Floyd claimed, perhaps jokingly, that he decided to join the British Army in 1963 after watching the film Zulu, although the film was not released until 1964.

Keith Floyd sold the restaurants and the rights to the name "Keith Floyd's Restaurant" and moved to the south of France, where again he opened a restaurant in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue in the Vaucluse.

Keith Floyd never described himself as a chef since he was untrained.

Keith Floyd became well known for cooking with a glass of wine in one hand, often in unusual locations such as a fishing boat in rough seas.

Keith Floyd was regarded as a pioneer of taking cooking programmes out of the studio.

Keith Floyd bought and ran the Maltsters Arms in Tuckenhay, Devon in the late 1980s.

When Keith Floyd was not running the kitchen, chefs included Jean-Christophe Novelli.

Keith Floyd was more often seen at the bar than in the kitchen.

Keith Floyd lived in Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland for a time in the mid-1990s.

Until his death he was actively involved in his restaurant Keith Floyd's Brasserie, located at the Burasari Resort on the popular Thai island of Phuket.

Keith Floyd travelled widely to cook local dishes and entertain people around the world.

Keith Floyd admitted away from the cameras that he often drank too much out of loneliness.

Keith Floyd was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1991 when he was surprised by Michael Aspel in The Brazen Head pub in Dublin.

Keith Floyd can be seen in a number of episodes of the children's television series Balamory, as a chef in Suzie Sweet's "Suzie's Cooking" song.

All four of Keith Floyd's marriages ended in divorce; he had a son and daughter.

Together, they formed a company called Walker Keith Floyd, buying wines in Vaucluse and then driving them back to Bristol to be sold to the city's bars and restaurants.

Paddy Walker and Keith Floyd ran a restaurant together in the village of L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue in the Vaucluse.

Keith Floyd suspected he had lung cancer or emphysema in early 2006, but was given the all-clear after a medical examination.

Keith Floyd collapsed at a pub in Chesterton, Staffordshire, on 29 January 2008 and was in a coma in hospital on a life-support machine.

Keith Floyd died of a heart attack, aged 65, on 14 September 2009, at the Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester, Dorset, after being taken ill at the home of his partner Celia Martin.

Keith Floyd was a beautiful man, his ability to inspire people to cook just with his words and the way he did things was extraordinary.