Mail on Sunday (You Magazine)
28 December 2003

Bookworm
Adrian Edmondson, Comedian and actor

What’s your favourite book?
The Sword of Honour Trilogy by Evelyn Waugh is exquisite. It’s full of that peculiar British trait where we become fatalistic when trapped by circumstances outside our control, which is an idea that I respond to. Waugh always writes with a delicious comedy, although he can also be very, very cruel.

Tell us a book you couldn’t finish.
Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre. It started very well, then I saw the author on television and thought he sounded vain and arrogant. I couldn’t finish reading it after that – it changed the tone of the book.

Have any books changed your life?
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M Pirsig. The central argument is that if something is going wrong in your life, you need to get it fixed and not let your problems mount up.

Has a book ever shocked you?
Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd. It’s about a young woman who studies chimpanzees, and the descriptions of the surgery that takes place made me feel faint and rather sick.

What's the funniest book you have read?
Puckoon by Spike Milligan. I didn’t like the Goons, but this was extremely funny. I met Milligan once but he was very grumpy.

Adrian Edmondson is in Doctors and Nurses on BBC1 from 6 January