Ramble Book: Musings on Childhood, Friendship, Family and 80s Pop Culture

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I certainly cried as I was writing. I regretted things, felt ashamed, thought of things I should have said. I’m not sure how useful some of that wallowing was, but overall it did me good. It also encouraged me to find out a lot more about my parents. We never talked about emotional stuff, about their pasts or families. So it was fascinating digging into all that.

A funny, self deprecating and moving autobiography that switches between Adam’s time caring for his elderly father and his pop culture saturated childhood in the 80s. The most emotionally effective parts (for me) were about Adam’s relationship with his father, Nigel, who is as rigid, conservative and snobbish as he is earnest and eloquent - trying to give his children a secure future the best way he knows. Father-son difficulties seem to be a common autobiographical thread (at least in works I’ve been reading e.g. Karl Ove Knausgaard) but in this case Adam managed to convey both the flaws and endearing qualities of a difficult father. Today, as the host of The Daily Show, Noah has been named as one of the most powerful people in New York media. To have reached such heights after so difficult a start in life makes this story all the more remarkable. At the end of the audio version of Ramble Book, there is a conversation between the pair in which Cornish brings up that comment, which he had long forgotten: “I think I was probably looking for the most provocative answer. My brain issues the true standard answer and then thinks, well, that’s a bit boring, what would be more interesting?” You can hear Buxton gasp, re-evaluating 40 years of casual banter. “I think the relationship worked creatively because we are very different, but I never understood that,” he says now, smiling. While Buxton and Cornish have both found success individually, for a certain kind of fan (me), the real joy comes from listening to them talk to one another, as on their former XFM and 6 Music shows. They have the kind of joyful, natural conversational style that only comes from a 40-year friendship between two people on the same wavelength. They started making films together when they were teenagers – including my personal favourite, one of Buxton, Cornish and Theroux dancing to Groove Is In The Heart when they were about 20.That’s an interesting question. Would he be super-woke or would he be appearing on Dave Rubin’s YouTube show? Would he and Jordan Peterson be bemoaning the excesses of cancel culture? Possibly. Bowie did a few cancellable things in his life. But I do miss him. When I go on stage my script is a safety net. With writing a book, there’s nothing: you’re tortured by the possibilities With its rugged fells, softly flowing streams, glittering tarns and wide open lakes, the Lake District is England’s most popular National Park. Covering 2,362 square kilometres of protected land, it’s still easy to find an isolated felltop to breathe in the fresh Cumbrian air and escape modern life here.” It’s easy to imagine that investigative presenters like Theroux simply swoop in, do their jobs and move on to the next subject, the next programme or the next big thing with barely a thought for the one they’re leaving behind. This autobiography proves that not to be the case at all. Not only are there real people behind the stories; there are real people presenting them, too. Well, it doesn’t much matter. But that’s why we make things and organise things, isn’t it? Otherwise, of course it’s all meaningless.” It’s impossible not to fall in love with Morris’ style. That her subject matter is one so rarely discussed makes this short autobiography all the more engaging.

It’s an account of his life but constantly interrupted by nuggets of trivia, puns, and musings on films and music. Soon after, we met with the local GP and it was agreed that there was little to be gained from any aggressive treatment for his cancer. The GP explained that if he took his various pills when he was supposed to, Dad was unlikely to be in any pain and the main challenge would be keeping his energy levels up. To that end, a nutritionist at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital encouraged him to load up on noodles, butter, cheese and other foods that for most people might be considered naughty. When I heard Adam Buxton had written a book, I was really keen to read it. I still remember the night I discovered the anarchic joy that was The Adam and Joe Show, a comedy that still fills me with fond memories of my student days and early married life.Jan Morris was born James Humphry Morris in Somerset in 1926, and died in Wales in 2020. She underwent gender reassignment surgery in 1972, after travelling to Morocco for the procedure. Two years later, she wrote Conundrum, in which she told the story of her transition. It was re-released in 2018. Aside from his father, the other leading characters in Ramble Book are Cornish and Louis Theroux, Buxton’s friends since Westminster. When they were 15, Buxton and Cornish invented their own fantasy media empire, called Joe/Adz Corporate; their first productions were sketches, parodies of the Gold Blend Advert and Monty Python tributes, filmed on Buxton’s father’s video camera. Within a decade they were broadcasting similar things on Channel 4 on The Adam and Joe Show, which is where Ramble Book ends. Buxton would now like to write more – about working with Cornish, and his “hair-raising 90s”. There’s never been a better time to get lost in a good book… so we’d love you to join the friendly Mirror Book Club community on Facebook. Members share thoughts on the current book of the month, post other recommendations and exchange book news and views. There are regular giveaways too. Earned or not, Theroux has more than proved his right to grace our screens in the years since, through a series of groundbreaking documentaries exploring, and sometimes exposing, the less often represented. So, he did what he does best and talked about it, on his podcast. He started The Adam Buxton Podcast, in which he interviews comedians, actors, writers and musicians over the course of an hour’s “ramble chat”, almost exactly five years ago. Over time, ever so gently, listeners learn as much about Buxton’s life and worldview (and dog) as they do about that of his guests. He figured he would have to talk about his mother eventually and he would rather do it with his erstwhile comedy partner, oldest friend and “go-to glib-chat guy”, Joe Cornish. The Adam and Joe Show (Photo: Channel 4)

READ NEXT: Best poetry books to buy The best autobiographies to read in 2023 1. One of Them by Michael Cashman: Best showbiz autobiography Later I may have been aware that the same two geezers had a show on radio six music but never managed to tune in. Only much later, in the era of the podcast did Buxton reappear. Technological advances meant The Adam Buxton podcast could be saved in Spotify and played on the car stereo. On long journeys my wife (my wife) and I could be entertained and informed while having our spirits lifted as we sing along to the insanely catchy jingles, "give me little smile and a thumbs up, nice little pat when me bums up" is a personal favorite.Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, King describes how the ancestors of one town greeted Confederate troops as heroes while another just 20 miles away viewed them as a scourge. Forks in the road are everywhere. Then one night in mid-November 2015, when I was watching TV with my wife, my phone rang. It was Dad calling from his bedroom. “Adam? Something extraordinary’s happened.” How often? “I suspect it might be my default setting, I’m afraid,” he says. “It certainly was for my Dad. And I just blithely assumed, for at least the first 30 years of my life, that I was totally different, that I was just an easygoing funster. But I think a lot of that was because I was just drinking a lot of booze and having fun. And young.” It’s a story that will thankfully be unfamiliar to a large part of its audience. For a white reader with no experience of the political system under which he came into the world, it’s difficult to comprehend Noah’s need to remain hidden and so often confined to the house. Apartheid came to an end when Noah was still a child, but even in the wake of that momentous event the fall out was unequal and extreme.