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Ramble Book

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What to expect

INCLUDES AN EXCLUSIVE BONUS PODCAST WITH JOE CORNISH

‘An affectionate and revealing account … Funny, sad, real, rueful.’ The Times

‘Warm, rambling and self-aware’ Guardian

The long-awaited, rambling, tender, and very funny memoir from Adam Buxton

Ramble

/ˈramb(ə)l/

Verb

1. walk for pleasure in the countryside.

‘Dr Buckles and Rosie the dog love rambling in the countryside.’

2. talk or write at length in a confused or inconsequential way.

‘Adam rambles on about lots of consequential, compelling and personal matters in his tender, insightful, hilarious and totally unconfused memoir, Ramble Book.’

Ramble Book is about parenthood, boarding school trauma, arguing with your partner, bad parties, confrontations on trains, friendship, wanting to fit in, growing up in the 80s, dead dads, teenage sexual anxiety, failed artistic endeavours, being a David Bowie fan; and how everything you read, watch and listen to as a child forms a part of the adult you become.

It’s also a book about the joys of going off topic and letting your mind wander.

And it’s about a short, hairy, frequently confused man called Adam Buxton.

Critics Review

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‘I recommend Ramble Book… There are wonderful, melancholy passages about his father, and Bowie, and 80s nostalgia, perfect for those of us who get teary-eyed remembering the first time we heard Dexys Midnight Runners or whatever.’ Jon Ronson

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‘Give yourself some love with Adam Buxton’s funny and moving Ramble Book.’ Stylist

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‘Had me guffawing and bawling simultaneously.’ Daily Telegraph

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‘Like listening to your most goofily funny friend on his finest form.’ Daily Mirror

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‘A work that feels spontaneous and fresh… The triumph of the book is Buxton’s account of his relationship with his father. The ways in which Adam’s expectations of an emotional reconciliation fail to match reality make for some beautifully tragi-comic scenes.’ Daily Express

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‘An extremely funny and insightful coming-of-age story.’ Mail on Sunday

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‘Eminently relatable and effortlessly readable with a penchant for sly jokes just when you don’t expect them.’ Chortle

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User Reviews

Book 3.7
Narration 5.0
3.0
5.0
I enjoyed an extended edition of Buckles' rambling. The structure pinballs from the present, to his schooldays, and everywhere in between in much the same way our memory does - but I found this added to, rather than detracted from, the overall narrative of the book. His 'rambles' and 'sub-rambles' act as anecdotal footnotes, and are perhaps indicative of his tendency towards self-doubt and self-conciousness, but also serve to keep him honest and introspective about the version of himself he his portraying. 

I am, I think, a generation beneath most of the (very many) niche cultural references. And at times the memoir veered into a self-indulgent critical analysis of Bowie's lesser known works, which I didn't mind listening in on but, having nothing tangible to hang them on, are somewhat lost on anyone who wasn't an ardent follower of his career. 

The meditations on grief, his father and old age were the most enjoyable, being both sincere and insightful but not without Buxton's characteristic (and often puerile) humour.

And the briefcase hook pays out.
pollybaker87 18/02/2024
3.0
5.0
Hmmm.
Toby 05/12/2025
5.0
5.0
A story about losing one’s father and lamenting old age should not be this funny, but it is. And I loved it. It’s poignant and hilarious in equal measure. The x-book version is the perfect way to experience it: the author shares their own story in their own inimitable voice(s) and the music intros, sound effects, samples and the hand drawn sketches of Bowie are all so brilliant. The whole experience was a delight from start to finish.
kellifb 05/12/2025

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