Berserker!

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

By: Adrian Edmondson

Narrated by: Adrian Edmondson

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

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)