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

Hilariously read by the author, Adrian Edmondson.

A Financial Times Best Audio of 2023
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, fascinating memoir from an icon of British comedy, Adrian Edmondson.

*****

'Everything Adrian Edmondson writes about makes you love him desperately' - Caitlin Moran

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

'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. 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

'A hilarious romp through a golden era of comedy and a searingly honest and moving memoir' - Red Magazine

'The bravest, most affecting celebrity book of the year' - Daily Express

‘Edmondson can be very funny and very poignant simultaneously’ - Daily Mirror


*****

Ade Edmondson smashed onto the comedy circuit in the 1980s, stormed The Comedy Store 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? Well, he is part Norse. Could it be his ‘berserker’ heritage?

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 his 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 listener through time, it’s a memoir like no other.

Berserker [noun]: A Norse warrior frenzied in battle and held to be invulnerable; often off his tits on henbane and large quantities of alcohol; one who is out of control with anger or excitement.