James Acaster's Classic Scrapes cover art

James Acaster's Classic Scrapes

Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

James Acaster's Classic Scrapes

By: James Acaster
Narrated by: James Acaster
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Only £0.99 a month for the first 3 months. Pay £0.99 for the first 3 months, and £8.99/month thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Start my membership

About this listen

The Sunday Times Best Seller

James Acaster has been nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy Award five times and has appeared on prime-time TV shows like Mock the Week, Live at the Apollo and Russell Howard's Stand Up Central.

But behind the fame and critical acclaim is a man perpetually getting into trouble. Whether it's disappointing a skydiving instructor mid-flight, hiding from thugs in a bush wearing a bright red dress, or annoying the Kettering Board Games club, a didgeridoo-playing conspiracy theorist and some bemused Christians, James is always finding new ways to embarrass himself.

Appearing on Josh Widdicombe's radio show to recount these stories, the feature was christened 'James Acaster's classic scrapes'. Here, in his first book, James recounts these tales (including never-before-heard stories) in all their glorious stupidity.

©2017 James Acaster (P)2017 Headline Publishing Group Ltd
Performing Arts Comedy Funny Witty Feel-Good Thought-Provoking

Listeners also enjoyed...

James Acaster's Guide to Quitting Social Media cover art
Perfect Sound Whatever cover art
Parsnips, Buttered cover art
Glutton cover art
And Away... cover art
Straight Outta Crawley cover art
Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse cover art
Alan Partridge: Big Beacon cover art
Watching Neighbours Twice a Day... cover art
A Class Act cover art
Dishonesty Is the Second-Best Policy cover art
From the Oasthouse: The Alan Partridge Podcast (Series 1) cover art
James Acaster’s Findings cover art
We Need to Talk About Kevin Bridges cover art
As Good as It Gets cover art
Life and Laughing cover art

Critic reviews

"James Acaster has a brilliant comic mind, crackling with energy every bit as much as his corduroy slacks." (Milton Jones)
"I don't think I've ever read a book that has made me cry with laughter as much as this one. It was very difficult reading it in public as I looked like a madman." (Richard Herring)
All stars
Most relevant
Heard interview with Richard Herring and thought would give a go. Despite not having listened to the radio show, James does an exceptional job of bringing new readers along with him, and I have to say I haven't laughed so much to a book since Alan Partridge's autobiography. Thoroughly recommended.

One of the funniest books I have listened too

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Unfortunately, James Acaster has an extremely annoying voice, as does Josh Widdecombe, making this impossible to listen to.
The anecdotes I did listen too were explained in too much pointless detail.
I possibly would have enjoyed it more, reading the book myself.

what was I thinking?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I have never cried so much listening to an audio book. Brilliantly written and beautifully read. Acaster's comedic prowess really shines through in these short tales of memorable moments throughout his life.

Eye-wateringly funny!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Listening to this book, I couldn't imagine it being read by anyone else. James' voice is half the joke!
Not all of the scrapes made me laugh, but those that did would've had me on the floor laughing, if I wasn't driving! Parrot soup is by far the best bit!

The voice makes it!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

James' story telling is fantastic, its hard to believe that some of these scrapes actually happened to him, but once you've seen him on TV a few times, it's very easy to see how they happened to him. Great little audio book to listen to on the go, thoroughly recommend

Fantastic short memoirs

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews