27/02/17: Alan Partridge with Rob Gibbons, Neil Gibbons and Steve Coogan – Alan Partridge: Nomad (2016)

"When I stroll, my heart swells, my mind races, my soul soars. For that is the power of walking. It doesn't just transport us, it transports us – which I know is the same word twice, but the second time should be said louder and slower."

Borrowed from Hendon Library. In Alan's follow-up to his 2011 "autobiography" I, Partridge: We Need to Talk About Alan, he details his "Footsteps of My Father" walk from Norwich to Dungeness. The joke is sustained well – a brilliantly extended digression. Over time (and across radio, TV and now the written word), Steve Coogan has deepened his character. We see him growing older, if not wiser, and refining his many prejudices. As his personal and professional history builds up he has become ever more compelling. As always the humour and tragedy come from the vast gulf between the way Alan sees the world and the way the world sees Alan. It's linguistically inspired, too, with Partridge mangling his words, sentences and metaphors throughout. Rather than a lazy TV tie-in/cash-in, it's a highly sophisticated character study for which the authors deserve great credit. It takes a special talent to write this "badly" while simultaneously constructing something so clever, amusing, sad and convincingly human.