Ramble Book

Adam Buxton's podcast is one of the constant joys in life. This book, The Ramble Book, while not exactly and extension of that podcast, does have some of its tangential rambling (!) and funny bits, but really it's a book about Adam's relationship with his father, who died a few years ago.

The book spans the 1980's, a decade where Buxton was educated at public school, met lifelong friends Joe Cornish and Louis Theroux, lived, loved, worked and finally went to art school before finally finding his calling by making funny videos with Joe for C4's The Adam and Joe Show (amongst other things too numerous to list here!) Which also featured Buxton's dad as Baaadad (where they'd send him off to do all sorts of things like go to the Glastonbury Festival). It's Buxton's relationship with his father (travel editor for the Daily Telegraph) that forms the backbone of this book. It was not an easy one, with money worries as his father struggled to pay for private education, and Buxton's own sense of inferiority getting in the way.

But he writes with humour, recalling many youthful misadventures, and these are interspersed with his evolving relationship with the music of David Bowie (who looms as large as his father in some ways, and who died shortly after his dad).

Don't expect your typical “humour” spin-off book, because that's not what this is. Instead it's his attempt to make sense of the father/son relationship and the final couple of chapters are quite moving, as he details his father's last days. It ends with a letter to his late father, which again is a mix of humour and sadness.

If you are familiar with Adam Buxton's work, you'll enjoy this. If you're not, give it a go anyway. It's funny, moving and has Bowie in it. What more could you want?