History Literature / IPartridgeWeNeedToTalkAboutAlan

The book received a follow-up, ''Nomad'', in 2016. Once again a parody of celebrity-related literature -- this time celebrity travelogues, specifically ones which hinge on some kind of narrative gimmick -- this time it involves Alan, after discovering a box of his father's old belongings in his attic, deciding to recreate a journey his father once took from Norwich to the nuclear power planet at Dungeness in Kent for a job interview. This, naturally, leads to all kinds of chaos for Alan.

* PetTheDog: There are few -- very few -- moments which suggest a slightly less dickish side to Alan. As an example, after all the trouble that he and Glen Ponder had in ''Series/KnowingMeKnowingMeWithAlanPartridge'' the two have apparently buried the hatchet and become friends, albeit with Alan's usual ineptness when it comes to friendship.

* {{Defictionalisation}}: It closely resembles Alan's autobiography 'Bouncing Back' which appeared prominently in Series 2 but was never produced in real life. Most likely, it was released due to fan demand for the defictionalisation of Bouncing Back.

* RunningGag: Whenever Alan has a new show, he systematically wants to call it "Alan's Show", before being told by his bosses that it's a bad idea.

* FreudianExcuse: Played with. Alan's status as an UnreliableNarrator means that it's hard to determine precisely how much of his recounting of his unhappy childhood can be taken at face value, but even allowing for his exaggeration and BlatantLies he does appear to have been rather starved of affection as a child. His relationship with his father appears to have not been great (albeit the man was probably not as abusive as he makes out) and he does genuinely appear to have suffered a lot of bullying and lacked friendship as a boy.

* BreakingTheFourthWall: Some of the photos in the insert have captions supplied by the photo agency they were purchased from, so that, for one example, a photo of Alan "addressing a room of teenage at an event promoting careers in the Norfolk media" is labeled as Steve Coogan appearing in-character at the Brit Awards. At least Alan's performance with Elton John at the British Comedy Awards has an in-universe explanation.

''I, Partridge'' -- or, to give the full title, ''I, Partridge: We Need to Talk About Alan'' -- is a chronicle of the life of [[UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist broadcasting legend]] Series/AlanPartridge, as written by the man himself[[note]]with Rob Gibbons, Neil Gibbons, Armando Iannucci and Steve Coogan[[/note]] and released in 2011. The autobiography [[UnreliableNarrator accurately]], [[SmallNameBigEgo humbly]] and [[BlatantLies honestly]] chronicles Partridge's [[JadedWashout glorious]] career from humble and difficult Norfolk beginnings surrounded by bullying schoolmates [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial whose torments he is now completely over and towards whom he holds no grudges whatsoever]] and monstrously {{Abusive Parent}}s [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial whose cruelty he is not simply exaggerating or outright making up in order to make his childhood seem more edgy and interesting]]. From this, he charts an early career as a reporter in local radio which led to the heights of to an ill-fated career at TheBBC as a radio and television sports commentator and chat show host, which came to a premature end mainly thanks to the spite and jealousy of people who just didn't get him or his amazing abilities (and only a little bit due to the fact that [[StylisticSuck his show was rubbish]], [[Radio/KnowingMeKnowingYouWithAlanPartridge he accidentally shot a guest dead live on air and then punched his boss during the follow-up Christmas special]]). Partridge then soberly reflects on his divorce from his unfaithful wife and his descent into [[MundaneMadeAwesome Toblerone addiction]], before ending with his triumphant return to his local radio roots where he is [[BlatantLies completely happy and content, with absolutely no desire to get back on television whatsoever]]...

Okay, okay, ''seriously'' now, it's a parody of nakedly self-serving and egotistical entertainment autobiographies, based on the popular British comedy character Alan Partridge. Written by his creators (including Armando Iannucci and Steve Coogan, the actor who portrays him), the book tells Partridge's life and backstory from his perspective, fleshing out the character's backstory and acting as a PerspectiveFlip on significant moments from Partridge's various appearances on radio and television shows such as ''TheDayToday'', ''Radio/KnowingMeKnowingYouWithAlanPartridge'' and ''Series/ImAlanPartridge''. The book thus makes heavy use of the UnreliableNarrator, as the dedicated viewer (or even not-so-dedicated viewer, really) of these shows will notice that there are many significant differences between them versus how Partridge retroactively presents himself when looking back on them.

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Provides examples of:

* BadBoss: Although he tries to cast himself as (and seems to genuinely believe himself to be) a BenevolentBoss, even if you've never seen the TV show it's quite clear that Alan is an inept, stingy, bullying and thoughtless boss to his assistant. His employees at his production company don't appear to have come off any better either.

** It takes him an absurd amount of time sifting through mind-bogglingly obvious clues -- including people ''outright telling him'' -- to figure out that his wife is having an affair with her fitness instructor.

* [[DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou Daddy And Husband Had A Good Reason For Abandoning You]]: Subverted; Alan is clearly not a very good husband to his wife or father to his children (and in particular treats his daughter as something of an afterthought), but his only justification for this is that he was trying to build a television career. Of course, in his mind, that's a ''perfectly'' good reason. He also includes a self-written letter purportedly from his wife (or at she at least agreed to being published[[note]]she didn't respond when he forwarded it to her, which he interpreted as consent[[/note]] which basically absolves him of blame on this score for these very reasons.
* Defictionalisation: It closely resembles Alan's autobiography 'Bouncing Back' which appeared prominently in Series 2 but was never produced in real life. Most likely, it was released due to fan demand for the defictionalisation of Bouncing Back.
* DontExplainTheJoke: Alan will often explain to the reader that he's using a particular technique in order to get a particular reaction, which consequently ruins both.
* FootnoteFever: Alan suffers a very bad case of this.
* HypocriticalHumour: A significant part of the book.
** One chapter focusses on the time he shot Forbes [=McAllister=] dead live on air during an interview. At the beginning, he asserts that he has to take full and complete responsibility for what happened and how he can't just dismiss it. Every single word of the chapter from that point on is him either pointing out reasons why it's not his fault or reasons why it was on the whole probably a good thing that Forbes [=McAllister=] died.
* {{Jerkass}}: Alan.
* PerspectiveFlip: The book retells several key points from Alan's life from his point of view. They are accordingly distorted.

* SmugSnake: Alan.

* StylisticSuck: Alan constantly loses his train of thought, switches between tenses and writing styles, explains what he's doing to the reader as he's doing it, latches on to trivial and insignificant details while completely ignoring the main point of what he's supposed to be talking about, introduces irrelevant tangents solely to boost up his word count, and so forth. His editors don't seem to have been that great either, since he's left in large notes for them to check something which have been ignored and left in.

* UnreliableNarrator: To a truly jaw-dropping degree if you're familiar with the TV series. To hear Partridge tell it, humiliating disasters and embarrassments become glorious triumphs and moral victories.

''I, Partridge'' -- or, to give the full title, ''I, Partridge: We Need To Talk About Alan'' -- is a chronicle of the life of [[UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist broadcasting legend]] Series/AlanPartridge, as written by the man himself[[note]]with Rob Gibbons, Neil Gibbons, Armando Iannucci and Steve Coogan[[/note]] and released in 2011. The autobiography [[UnreliableNarrator accurately]], [[SmallNameBigEgo humbly]] and [[BlatantLies honestly]] chronicles Partridge's [[JadedWashout glorious]] career from humble and difficult Norfolk beginnings surrounded by bullying schoolmates [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial whose torments he is now completely over and towards whom he holds no grudges whatsoever]] and monstrously {{Abusive Parent}}s [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial whose cruelty he is not simply exaggerating or outright making up in order to make his childhood seem more edgy and interesting]]. From this, he charts an early career as a reporter in local radio which led to the heights of to an ill-fated career at TheBBC as a radio and television sports commentator and chat show host, which came to a premature end mainly thanks to the spite and jealousy of people who just didn't get him or his amazing abilities (and only a little bit due to the fact that [[StylisticSuck his show was rubbish]], [[Radio/KnowingMeKnowingYouWithAlanPartridge he accidentally shot a guest dead live on air and then punched his boss during the follow-up Christmas special]]). Partridge then soberly reflects on his divorce from his unfaithful wife and his descent into [[MundaneMadeAwesome Toblerone addiction]], before ending with his triumphant return to his local radio roots where he is [[BlatantLies completely happy and content, with absolutely no desire to get back on television whatsoever]]...

* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: The book manages the achievement of making Alan seem ''worse'' than he does on TV (which is really something). His every desperate attempt to convince the reader that he's a likeable and sympathetic guy will just further convince them of how utterly loathsome and repellent he truly is.

''I, Partridge'' -- or, to give the full title, ''I, Partridge: We Need To Talk About Alan'' -- is a chronicle of the life of [[UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist broadcasting legend]] Series/AlanPartridge, as written by the man himself[[hottip:*:with Rob Gibbons, Neil Gibbons, Armando Iannucci and Steve Coogan]] and released in 2011. The autobiography [[UnreliableNarrator accurately]], [[SmallNameBigEgo humbly]] and [[BlatantLies honestly]] chronicles Partridge's [[JadedWashout glorious]] career from humble and difficult Norfolk beginnings surrounded by bullying schoolmates [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial whose torments he is now completely over and towards whom he holds no grudges whatsoever]] and monstrously {{Abusive Parent}}s [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial whose cruelty he is not simply exaggerating or outright making up in order to make his childhood seem more edgy and interesting]]. From this, he charts an early career as a reporter in local radio which led to the heights of to an ill-fated career at TheBBC as a radio and television sports commentator and chat show host, which came to a premature end mainly thanks to the spite and jealousy of people who just didn't get him or his amazing abilities (and only a little bit due to the fact that [[StylisticSuck his show was rubbish]], [[Radio/KnowingMeKnowingYouWithAlanPartridge he accidentally shot a guest dead live on air and then punched his boss during the follow-up Christmas special]]). Partridge then soberly reflects on his divorce from his unfaithful wife and his descent into [[MundaneMadeAwesome Toblerone addiction]], before ending with his triumphant return to his local radio roots where he is [[BlatantLies completely happy and content, with absolutely no desire to get back on television whatsoever]]...

* [[DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou Daddy And Husband Had A Good Reason For Abandoning You]]: Subverted; Alan is clearly not a very good husband to his wife or father to his children (and in particular treats his daughter as something of an afterthought), but his only justification for this is that he was trying to build a television career. Of course, in his mind, that's a ''perfectly'' good reason. He also includes a self-written letter purportedly from his wife (or at she at least agreed to being published[[hottip:*:she didn't respond when he forwarded it to her, which he interpreted as consent]] which basically absolves him of blame on this score for these very reasons.

''I, Partridge'' -- or, to give the full title, ''I, Partridge: We Need To Talk About Alan'' -- is a chronicle of the life of [[UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist broadcasting legend]] Series/AlanPartridge, as written by the man himself[[hottip:*:with Rob Gibbons, Neil Gibbons, Armando Iannucci and Steve Coogan]] and released in 2011. The autobiography [[UnreliableNarrator accurately]], [[SmallNameBigEgo humbly]] and [[BlatantLies honestly]] chronicles Partridge's [[JadedWashout glorious]] career from humble and difficult Norfolk beginnings surrounded by bullying schoolmates [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial whose torments he is now completely over and towards whom he holds no grudges whatsoever]] and monstrously {{Abusive Parent}}s [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial whose cruelty he is not simply exaggerating or outright making up in order to make his childhood seem more edgy and interesting]]. From this, he charts an early career as a reporter in local radio which led to the heights of to an ill-fated career at TheBBC as a radio and television sports commentator and chat show host, which came to a premature end mainly thanks to the spite and jealousy of people who just didn't get him or his amazing abilities (and only a little bit due to the fact that [[Radio/KnowingMeKnowingYouWithAlanPartridge he accidentally shot a guest dead live on air and then punched his boss during the follow-up Christmas special]]). Partridge then soberly reflects on his divorce from his unfaithful wife and his descent into [[MundaneMadeAwesome Toblerone addiction]], before ending with his triumphant return to his local radio roots where he is [[BlatantLies completely happy and content, with absolutely no desire to get back on television whatsoever]]...

* ButtMonkey: Alan's assistant Lynn. Apparently, ''Series/ImAlanPartridge'' actually ''downplays'' just what a huge bellend he is towards her. To add insult to injury, he doesn't even refer to her by name throughout the entire book (although she is given a cursory mention in the acknowledgements).

* ButtMonkey: Alan's assistant. Apparently, ''Series/ImAlanPartridge'' actually ''downplays'' just what a huge bellend he is towards her. To add insult to injury, he doesn't even refer to her by name throughout the entire book (although she is given a cursory mention in the acknowledgements).

* [[DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou Daddy And Husband Had A Good Reason For Abandoning You]]: Subverted; Alan is clearly not a very good husband to his wife or father to his children (and in particular treats his daughter as something of an afterthought), but his only justification for this is that he was trying to build a television career. He also includes a self-written letter purportedly from his wife (or at she at least agreed to being published[[hottip:*:she didn't respond when he forwarded it to her, which he interpreted as consent]] which basically absolves him of blame on this score for these very reasons.

** One chapter focusses on the time he shotForbes [=McAllister=] dead live on air during an interview. At the beginning, he asserts that he has to take full and complete responsibility for what happened and how he can't just dismiss it. Every single word of the chapter from that point on is him either pointing out reasons why it's not his fault or reasons why it was on the whole probably a good thing that Forbes [=McAllister=] died.

* StalkerWithACrush: At one point Partridge mentions that after his divorce he spent a lot of time eatting his lunch outside the gym where his wife had an affair with her fitness instructor. He apparently failed to notice anything creepy about this.

''I, Partridge'' -- or, to give the full title, ''I, Partridge: We Need To Talk About Alan'' -- is a chronicle of the life of [[UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist broadcasting legend]] Series/AlanPartridge, as written by the man himself[[hottip:*:with Rob Gibbons, Neil Gibbons, Armando Iannucci and Steve Coogan]] and released in 2011. The autobiography [[UnreliableNarrator accurately]], [[SmallNameBigEgo humbly]] and [[BlatantLies honestly]] chronicles Partridge's [[JadedWashout glorious]] career from humble and difficult Norfolk beginnings surrounded by bullying schoolmates [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial whose torments he is now completely over and towards whom he holds no grudges whatsoever]] and monstrously {{Abusive Parent}}s [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial whose cruelty he is not simply exaggerating or outright making up in order to make his childhood seem more edgy and interesting]]. From this, he charts an early career as a reporter in local radio which led to the heights of to an ill-fated career at TheBBC as a radio and television sports commentator and chat show host, which came to a premature end mainly thanks to the spite and jealousy of people who just didn't get him or his amazing abilities (and only a little bit due to the fact that [[Radio/KnowingMeKnowingYouWithAlanPartridge he accidentally shot a guest dead live on air and then punched his boss during the follow-up Christmas special]]). Partridge then soberly reflects on his divorce from his unfaithful wife and his descent into [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome Toblerone addiction]], before ending with his triumphant return to his local radio roots where he is [[BlatantLies completely happy and content, with absolutely no desire to get back on television whatsoever]]...

''I, Partridge'' -- or, to give the full title, ''I, Partridge: We Need To Talk About Alan'' -- is a chronicle of the life of [[UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist broadcasting legend]] [[Radio/KnowingMeKnowingYouWithAlanPartridge Alan]] [[Series/ImAlanPartridge Partridge]], as written by the man himself[[hottip:*:with Rob Gibbons, Neil Gibbons, Armando Iannucci and Steve Coogan]] and released in 2011. The autobiography [[UnreliableNarrator accurately]], [[SmallNameBigEgo humbly]] and [[BlatantLies honestly]] chronicles Partridge's [[JadedWashout glorious]] career from humble and difficult Norfolk beginnings surrounded by bullying schoolmates [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial whose torments he is now completely over and towards whom he holds no grudges whatsoever]] and monstrously {{Abusive Parent}}s [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial whose cruelty he is not simply exaggerating or outright making up in order to make his childhood seem more edgy and interesting]]. From this, he charts an early career as a reporter in local radio which led to the heights of to an ill-fated career at TheBBC as a radio and television sports commentator and chat show host, which came to a premature end mainly thanks to the spite and jealousy of people who just didn't get him or his amazing abilities (and only a little bit due to the fact that [[Radio/KnowingMeKnowingYouWithAlanPartridge he accidentally shot a guest dead live on air and then punched his boss during the follow-up Christmas special]]). Partridge then soberly reflects on his divorce from his unfaithful wife and his descent into [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome Toblerone addiction]], before ending with his triumphant return to his local radio roots where he is [[BlatantLies completely happy and content, with absolutely no desire to get back on television whatsoever]]...