Alan Partridge relocates to Kent
New book ‘Alan Partridge: Big Beacon’ sees Steve Coogan’s character move to the coast
Aha! Knowing me Alan Partridge, knowing you…. Abbot’s Cliff, Kent.
The brand new book (and audiobook, obviously) Alan Partridge: Big Beacon sees the iconic character relocate from his beloved Norfolk to the south coast of Kent.
Writers Steve Coogan, Neil Gibbons and Rob Gibbons brought Alan to Kent during his previous outing ‘Alan Partridge: Nomad’, in which the former TV presenter embarks on a walk from Norfolk to Dungeness - with a particularly amusing stop-off in Gravesham. But this time, he has moved… permanently.
Using an innovative ‘dual narrative’ structure, Big Beacon tells the story of how Partridge ‘heroically rebuilt his TV career, rising like a phoenix from the desolate wasteland of local radio to climb to the summit of Mount Primetime and regain the nationwide prominence his talent merits’.
But then something quite unexpected and moving, because Big Beacon also tells the story of a ‘selfless man, driven to restore an old lighthouse to its former glory, motivated by nothing more than respect for a quietly heroic old building that many take for granted, which some people think is a metaphor for Alan himself even though it’s not really for them to say’.
We have been trying to narrow down exactly where he has moved to… with the ‘Lighthouse at Abbot’s Cliff’, situated somewhere along the coastal path between Dover and Folkestone… presumably near the iconic Abbot’s Cliff Sound Mirror, but also somewhere with a mini-mart (a scaled-down supermarket, fits inside a petrol station).
Expect much banter from Alan at Kentish folk’s expense, but, to be fair, Norfolk’s populace needed a break.
