Nomad by Alan Partridge Review

I’m a big Alan Partridge fan, so I was pretty excited to see a new book being released. I’d loved listening to the audiobook version of I, Partridge and had looked forward to reading Nomad for quite some time. I was conscious that my high expectations might’ve ruined the final experience, but I needn’t have worried – Nomad is a hugely enjoyable, and very funny read.

Telling the tale of Partridge’s walking journey to the same nuclear power station his dad had once tried (and failed) to get a job at, the story takes a route every bit as diverse and wonky as the route taken by Partridge himself. The narrative leaps from the walk itself back to other events since the previous book such as the Shape Radio siege, and following on with the theme of I, Partridge the events told by him don’t necessarily match what we’ve seen in the two TV series and the Alpha Pappa film, something which only goes to make the book all the more amusing. It’s also impossible to read it in anything other that Partridge’s voice; I tried, but my mind kept drifting back to that infamous sound that we’ve come to like so much on the TV (and radio, obviously).

The ending is a bit sudden, but this is a log of the journey Partridge goes on, and with the journey ending in the way that it does (without giving anything away) it’s probably actually the right way to end the book. Will this be the final chapter in the Alan Partridge story? It’s hard to tell. There’s not an obvious opening for further matters relating to this, and his career is certainly on the rocks, and surely Steve Coogan is getting bored of the character by now… but… I’d still like to see more. Especially after Nomad – it’s a very very enjoyable book.