Berserker! out in September

Adrian Edmondson has written an autobiography, to be released in September.

Berserker! will cover his life ‘from brutal schooldays to 1980s anarchy, through The Young Ones and beyond,’ according to publishers Pan MacMillan.

Revealing the book on Twitter, the comic said the title was chosen ‘because the dictionary definition of a berserker is a man who is out of control with anger and excitement, which seems to define much of what I've done, and much of what I am.’

‘And it defines many of the comedy characters I played in my life. Vyvyan Bastard, Sir Adrian Dangerous Eddie Hitler. Fair enough.

‘And who but a  berserker would slap on the brakes on his motorcycle and drive headlong into a busy junction to prove that he was alive. Now that seems true.

‘But it's also about my personal history of swearing, Bloody Nora!

'Who but a berserker would slacken the brakes on his motorcycle and drive headlong into a busy junction to prove that he was alive?' @AdrianEdmondson explains the meaning behind the title of his upcoming memoir, Berserker! Pre-order SIGNED Edition here: https://t.co/Iuoc2qk0XJ pic.twitter.com/RTMGQpcWmy

— Waterstones (@Waterstones) March 22, 2023

‘It's about being constantly beaten with sticks at school about kissing Joni Mitchell and being set on fire, not all at the same time. It's about the life and death of a double act… And it's about the university lecturer who freed my mind when he held up my essay full of carefully attributed quotes from recognised experts and said, "but I don't want to hear what they think. I know what they think. I want to hear what you think".

‘I hope you want to hear what I think too…’

Edmondson, 66, shot the video while wearing a horned helmet, which also feature on the book’s cover, and said the title ‘touches on my Norse heritage’ – but admitted that might be ‘contested’.

He was actually brought up in a strict Methodist household, yet defined the age of anarchic alternative comedy with Rik Mayall in the 1980s. After comic roles such as The Young Ones and Bottom, he diversified into 'straight' acting including with the Royal Shakespeare Company, EastEnders and the BBC  TV adaptation War and Peace . He has also had an award-winning music career with his band The Bad Shepherds, which fused punk and folk.

Edmondson previously wrote the novel The Gobbler in 1995 and the children’s books Tilly and the Time Machine in 2017 and Junkyard Jack and the Horse That Talked the following year.

Berserker! will be published on September 29 in hardback, ebook and audiobook, read by Edmondson himself. It is available to pre-order from Waterstones or Amazon.

Published: 22 Mar 2023