Berserker! cover art

Berserker!

The Deeply Moving and Brilliantly Funny Memoir From One of Britain's Most Beloved Comedians

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Berserker!

By: Adrian Edmondson
Narrated by: Adrian Edmondson
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About this listen

Hilariously read by the author, Adrian Edmondson.

A Financial Times Best Audio of the Year


The instant Sunday Times bestseller

From brutal schooldays to 80s anarchy, through The Young Ones, Bottom and beyond, Berserker! is the one-of-a-kind, hilarious memoir from an icon of British comedy, Adrian Edmondson.

Ade Edmondson revolutionized the comedy circuit in the 1980s and, alongside Rik Mayall, brought anarchy to stage and screen. How did a child brought up in a strict Methodist household – and who spent his formative years incarcerated in repressive boarding schools – end up joining the revolution?

With wisdom, nostalgia and uniquely observed humour, Ade traces his journey through life and comedy: starting out on the alternative scene, getting arrested in Soho, creating outrageously violent characters and learning more about his curious (possibly Scandinavian) heritage. With star-studded anecdotes and set to a soundtrack of pop hits which transport the reader through time, it’s a memoir like no other.

Nominated for Radio Times Moment of the Year for sharing his memories of Rik Mayall on Desert Island Discs.

'The Berserker from The Young Ones and Bottom tells his story with self-effacing charm and no end of backstage anecdotes' - Ian Rankin

'Amazing' - Richard Osman

'Gloriously candid and wise all at once' - Sara Pascoe

'It is incredibly funny, but it is also a lot, lot more than that' - Miles Jupp

‘More fun than reading Hegel, and also more enlightening’ - Louis de Bernières

Entertainment & Celebrities Entertainment & Performing Arts Film & TV Performing Arts Comedy Biography Celebrity Funny Witty Heartfelt Inspiring Thought-Provoking Alcohol Entertainment Feel-Good

Critic reviews

Boarding school, despair, love, music, Rik Mayall – everything Adrian Edmondson writes about makes you love him desperately (Caitlin Moran, journalist and author of How to Be a Woman)
The berserker from The Young Ones and Bottom tells his story with self-effacing charm and no end of backstage anecdotes (Ian Rankin, author of the Inspector Rebus series)
This is a bloody good book. Lots of people live interesting lives, but very few people can write genuinely interesting books about those lives. Adrian Edmondson has done both. And while it is incredibly funny, it is also a lot, lot more than that (Miles Jupp, comedian and author of History)
The bravest, most affecting celebrity book of the year
Edmondson can be very funny and very poignant simultaneously
A hilarious romp through a golden era of comedy and a searingly honest and moving memoir
Gloriously candid and wise all at once (Sara Pascoe, comedian and author of Weirdo)
More fun than reading Hegel, and also more enlightening (Louis de Bernières, author of Captain Corelli's Mandolin)
Absolutely brilliant (Marina Hyde, author of What Just Happened?! and co-host of The Rest Is Entertainment)
All stars
Most relevant
For me, it was The Dangerous Brothers, Bad News, MrJolly Lives Door, Bottom and his cameos in Blackadder that put Ade into my pantheon of great comic actors. I never realised ( and he never let on) how much pain he endured growing up. This is so honest and unflinching in putting across his personal struggles that it demolished everything I’d mistakenly assumed.
His descriptions and analysis of his relationships with his father and with Mayall are illuminating and saddening. In the latter case, why the friendship soured is recounted with a clarity that anyone who has experienced a changing and ultimately damaging shift in a personal dynamic will relate to.
Well read and well written. Thank you, Adrian.

Illuminating

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This is a good listen, it is his life, warts and all. It can be a hard listen at times, but then what life ever runs smoothly? If you want lots of funny stories about his time with Rik Mayall or quotes from Bottom then don't waste your time, it's not that sort of book. But it is honest and interesting in a way that anyone's life story would be if you bothered to listen to them.

Good but not what i was expecting

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A deeply honest and personal journey. It gives us insight into the mind that hilariously brought us falling beds, exploding buses and generally all-around anarchy from Vyvyan, Vim Fuego, Sir Adrian Dangerous and Eddie Hitler. He was seminal in the groundbreaking alternative comedy movement and in bringing it into the mainstream. As a kid in an unfair world, The Young Ones meant the world to me. Bottom was, in my opinion, the funniest comedy ever to be shown on British TV. Their live shows were hilarious. Yet, Ade is humble and very endearing. He is a loveable figure who doesn't seem to know how much he is loved and how much he and the alternative comedy crowd, influenced comedy.
It's heartbreaking yet relatable to hear about his brutal hardship in school days and his strained relationship with his cold father. It's also a wonderful insight into his friendship with Rik over the years. They were the Laurel and Hardy of our generation.
Where is this man's knighthood for Ade's services to entertainment?? Ade is a comedy legend.

Comedy Legend

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Im a big fan of ade and he's opened up about things I have not heard about the book was great ! also his narration adds to the experience.

I did find it emotional when he spoke about how he regrets that Rik never understood why he wanted to stop. very touching and well worth a read to any fan of Adrian's work !

Top Bottom!

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I grew up watching Adrian and Rik, both are my ideals. Reading/listening to his autobiography has given me more respect for that man, he is how i imagined him to be!. They say you should never meet your ideals but i feel i'd be safe meeting Adrian. The book is amazing, funny, sad, and even irritating in parts, so has it all. Thank Adarain for this brilliant insight into a legend!

legend

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