They are the pages where an unwilling messiah Brian, Mr Creosote, the Ministry of Silly Walks, a football team of philosophers and a dead parrot were all born. Now, more than 50 notebooks of original sketches and ideas for Monty Python have been donated to the British Library by Michael Palin.

The public will now be able to freely peruse Palin’s archive of writings from 1965 to 1987, including the books where he and Terry Jones would write the early sketches for Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

Ideas for characters that have become household names, from Arthur “two sheds” Jackson to Mr Gambolputty, can be seen scribbled down in the lined pages, alongside doodles and rough ideas for sketches that would eventually become some of the most recognisable comedy moments on British television.

The vast archive donated by Palin also includes draft episodes of Monty Python’s Flying Circus – the early sketch show that launched their careers – personal reflections on his own writing, Monty Python’s first job offer from the BBC, as well as his own personal diaries.

“I was a bit shy about it really,” admitted Palin. “I thought I should go to a smaller library, maybe my local library, to see if they wanted it.”

Palin views some of his personal archive, which he has donated to the British Library. Photograph: Tony Antoniou/British Library/PA

He added: “My work has been inspired by, and created in, this country, so I’m very pleased that my archive has been accepted by the British Library, and that they will make it publicly available, so that future generations will know not to make the same mistakes again.”

Rachel Foss, the British Library’s head of contemporary archives and manuscripts, said it was delighted to have the extensive archive as part of the collection, and said it complemented other recent donations by British writers such as Joan Bakewell and Kenneth Williams.

“Monty Python has had an unparalleled influence on British comedy,” she said. “it’s very subversive and very self-consciously literary, so it fits in interestingly with the library’s literary collection.

“It’s interesting to reflect on the fact that Python-esque has entered the English dictionary and is now really is a byword for the subversive and the surreal. This is a testament to the extent to which Monty Python has really pervaded our cultural consciousness.”

Foss said the chance to see how some of the most beloved comedy sketches and quotes had come into being, often revised and perfected again and again by Palin and his fellow Monty Python comedians, was a rare privilege.

“The sketches we see written in the Python notebooks are ones that we know so well and have been immortalised, but here you can see the stuttering and the false starts and the refining and perfecting, so you can really see the craftsman at work,” she said.

While he made his name as part of Monty Python, Palin’s career has extended well beyond their surreal sketch comedy, and films such as Holy Grail and Life of Brian, and his donation to the British Library also includes files from his other film and book projects, such as his novels The Truth and Hemingway’s Chair.

Palin’s personal diaries also reveal the comedian commenting on election politics, the moon landing in 1969 and the birth of his son. While edited version of his diaries have been published in the past, Foss said these offered even more of an insight into Palin’s experiences and observations as Monty Python took off.

Foss said Palin was keen the public use the diaries as creative inspiration, not just for historical reference.

“Michael Palin wanted this to be made publicly available because he want people to learn from it,” she said. “I think he’s particularly excited by the idea that future comedians or young emerging writers might get some inspiration from seeing how creative writing can happen, particularly debunking that myth that these things just drop from the sky in a burst of inspiration.”

The collection will be available to view in the British Library reading rooms from spring 2018.

• This article was amended on 14 June 2017 to clarify that Michael Palin worked with Terry Jones on the early sketches for Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

