Berserker!

I'm in the car with my dad on the way back to Bradford. He's absolutely furious. So furious he can't speak. He's literally quivering with rage. My dad was never good at heart-to-hearts, and in this instance I'm glad of it, because for the first thirty minutes he doesn't say a word. And I don't offer anything in return. But as we negotiate the interminable roadworks on the still incomplete York bypass, he breaks the silence. I suppose he's had the journey over to consider his tactics, but his opening gambit, delivered with an air of heart-breaking desperation, is:

'Adrian, what are you going to do with your life?'

I think for a while before I answer. It occurs to me that I'm in such trouble already that I might as well go for broke.

'I want to be an actor,' I say.

From his unhappy experience at boarding school to finding enjoyment in sixth form, where he discovered drinking and smoking and petty acts of vandalism, to the glorious feeling of belonging in the early days of working in Soho at The Comic Strip, which would set him up to become a key player in the alternative comedy boom that changed the landscape of comedy forever, Ade Edmondson's road to acting has been far from straightforward or conventional.

Berserker! is full of wisdom, nostalgia and uniquely observed humour; with reflections on the 1980-1990s alternative comedy scene and his own curious (possibly Scandinavian?) family background interwoven 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.

About the Author

Adrian Charles Edmondson is an English actor, comedian, musician, writer and television presenter. He studied drama at Manchester University where he met his comedy partner Rik Mayall. The influence of the absurdist dramatists he studied and his early love for The Goons, The Muppets and Monty Python are all reflected in his comedy practice. He and Rik were part of the first wave of Alternative Comedy where their glorious pursuit of laughter and anarchic performances changed the comedic landscape forever.