BEST-SELLING Australian author Owen Beddall's sudden death has shocked and saddened friends who remember him as gregarious and generous.

The author of Confessions of a Qantas Flight Attendant died last week, but it was several days before his body was discovered in his Melbourne home.

Victoria Police confirmed police attended a Commercial Rd apartment to perform a welfare check on the 40-year-old after he had not been in contact with family and friends for a number of days.

The matter is subject to a Coroner's investigation, but his death is not being treated as suspicious.

Confessions of a Qantas Flight Attendant became one of the best-selling books in 2014, revealing the cocktail of pills flight attendants took to do their job, the attempts people made to join the mile-high club and the in-flight incident with Olympic gold medallist Grant Hackett when he was badly affected by Stilnox.

Mr Beddall wrote the book after a fall in 2011 broke his spine in three places, ending his 12-year jetsetting career.