Alan Partridge: Nomad

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Alan Partridge has decided to honour the memory of his late father by undertaking a walk "in the footsteps" of his father.

Early on in the book Partridge admits to padding the word count with meaningless filler, and it's depressing to realise that it's not merely a gag but the literal truth. I reckon the web series from last year, Alan Partridge's Scissored Isle, is one of the best things he's done.I'm fairly Anglophile, but some of the cultural references still went past me, but I'm confident I inferred the point correctly when that happened. The sneering aspect towards the countryside is a bit tiresome too, mostly relying on ancient stereotypes about inbreeding and the absurd premise that Alan would be unaware that Norwich has now become one of the most liberal/left areas in England. Regardless, I did get some laughs from this, albeit not as good as his first autobiography, and it’s nice to have for free on Spotify.

Although, you might find yourself getting a few funny looks from fellow passengers because there's no way you'll be able to get through even a single chapter without letting out at least one or two audible giggles. They hit you with cumulative effect, so that after a few paragraphs you might easily find yourself reduced to tears by a single well-chosen adverb. Alan is going to honour his dead father, even though he didn't like him, by walking from Norfolk down to Dungeness.He is also quite nasty now, while he was always somewhat petty and selfish, he was never particularly consciously sadistic, and at many points here, he is simply loathsome. Too short, could have doubled its length but writing like this must take a huge amount of effort to think up punchlines for literally every sentence. There are a few classic Partridge moments scattered throughout the book and the narration is very good throughout as you'd expect but the actual text struggles to find its way and feels cobbled together.