John Lennon's original draft of the lyrics to the Beatles song A Day in the Life are to be sold at auction.

The manuscript is expected to fetch more than £1.13 million in a sealed-bid auction by Bonhams in New York, ending 7th March.

The song was written by both Lennon and McCartney, but was the first one where the two wrote separate parts of the song. Lennon wrote the verses, the main part of which he composed after learning of the death of his friend, Guinness heir Tara Browne, in the Daily Mail on 17 January 1967.

The middle eight was written separately by McCartney and includes the line "Found my way upstairs and had a smoke, somebody spoke and I went into a dream."

The manuscript was last sold in 1992 by the estate of Beatles road manager Mal Evans for $100,000 (£56,600) at Sotheby's, in London, to an unknown collector.

Martin Gammon, of Bonhams, said the sale price could be $2m "based on market history".

This would make it the most valuable musical manuscript composed in the 20th Century to be offered at auction, he added.