Berserker!

The instant Sunday Times bestseller and Financial Times Best Audio of 2023

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.

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

Author Biography

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.

He starred as Vyvyan in The Young Ones, a series that blasted its way onto our screens and tore into our preconceptions of what television comedy could be. In later years, Edmondson’s career has also taken him into ‘straight’ acting – including at the RSC and in the BBC’s War and Peace and EastEnders – and into writing books for adults and children. He has also had an award-winning music career with his band The Bad Shepherds, which fused punk and folk to great acclaim.