Books
by Robin Ince

Bibliomaniac: An Obsessive’s Tour of the Bookshops of Britain – Out October 2022

Why play to 12,000 people when you can play to 12? In Autumn 2021, Robin Ince’s stadium tour with Professor Brian Cox was postponed due to the pandemic. Rather than do nothing, he decided instead to go on a tour of over a hundred bookshops in the UK, from Wigtown to Penzance; from Swansea to Margate.

Packed with witty anecdotes and tall tales, Bibliomaniac takes the reader on a journey across Britain as Robin explores his lifelong love of bookshops and books – and also tries to find out just why he can never have enough of them.

It is the story of an addiction and a romance, and also of an occasional points failure just outside Oxenholme.

Order signed copies with exclusive art cards The Cosmic Shambles Network Bookshop or get it from from Amazon or Hive or Bookshop or your local bookshop. Robin is touring bookshops around the UK to talk about the book. Dates here.  

The Importance of Being Interested – Adventures in Scientific Curiosity

Comedian Robin Ince quickly abandoned science at school, bored by a fog of dull lessons and intimidated by the barrage of equations. But, twenty years later, he fell in love and he now presents one of the world’s most popular science podcasts. Every year he meets hundreds of the world’s greatest thinkers.

In this erudite and witty book, Robin reveals why scientific wonder isn’t just for the professionals. Filled with interviews featuring astronauts, comedians, teachers, quantum physicists, neuroscientists and more – as well as charting Robin’s own journey with science – The Importance of Being Interested explores why many wrongly think of the discipline as distant and difficult. From the glorious appeal of the stars above to why scientific curiosity can encourage much needed intellectual humility, this optimistic and profound book will leave you filled with a thirst for intellectual adventure.

Order signed copies from The Cosmic Shambles Network Bookshop or get it from from Amazon or Hive or your local bookshop. 

The popular comedian and science presenter Robin Ince blends memoir, wit, and popular science to examine the human condition. Informed by personal insights from Robin as well as interviews with some of the world’s top comedians, neuroscientists and psychologists, this is a hilarious and often moving primer to the mind. Includes interviews with Tim Minchin, Josie Long, Ricky Gervais, Barry Crimmins, Sara Pascoe, Sofie Hagen, Lenny Henry and more. 

‘Joyfully entertaining. Full of warmth, wisdom and affectionate delight in the wonder and absurdity of being human.’ Observer

‘Funny, honest and heart-warming.’ Matt Haig

Purchase signed copies from The Cosmic Shambles Network Bookshop or get it from Amazon or Hive or Waterstones or your local bookshop. 

The Infinite Monkey Cage, the legendary BBC Radio 4 programme, brings you this irreverent celebration of scientific marvels. Join us on a hectic leap through the grand and bizarre ideas conjured up by human imagination, from dark matter to consciousness via neutrinos and earthworms. Professor Brian Cox and Robin Ince muse on multifaceted subjects involved in building a universe, with pearls of wisdom from leading scientists and comedians peppered throughout.

Covering billions of concepts and conundrums, they tackle everything from the Big Bang to parallel universes, fierce creatures to extraterrestrial life, brain science to artificial intelligence. How to Build a Universe is an illuminating and inspirational celebration of science – sometimes silly, sometimes astounding and very occasionally facetious.

Purchase signed copies from The Cosmic Shambles Network Bookshop or get it from Amazon or Hive or Waterstones or your local bookshop. 

Is hideous prose and ghastly poetry more fabulous than great literature? Determined to find out, award-winning comedian Robin Ince has spent most of the 21st century rummaging through charity shops, jumble sales, and even the odd skip to compile the defining collection of the world’s worst inadvertently hilarious books.

This book will guide you through the hinterland of celebrity autobiography, unearthing underappreciated classics such as those by It Ain’t Half Hot Mum’s Don Estelle and the brother of a former PM (Major Major). It offers a detailed study of romance sub-genres, from the equine (Diamond Stud) to the gynaecological (Sign of the Speculum). And it will prove invaluable to anyone who wants to know The Secrets of Picking Up Sexy Girls.

Purchase signed copies from The Cosmic Shambles Network Bookshop or get it from Amazon or Hive or Waterstones or your local bookshop. 

What happens when mirth turns to murder? When the screams are not from joy, but flesh-ripping pain? Dead Funny is an audacious anthology, featuring tales of terror from some of the brightest lights in UK comedy. Award winners Robin Ince and Johnny Mains team up for this unique exploration of the relationship between comedy and horror to see if they do, as believed, make the most comfortable of bedfellows.

Featuring stories by Mitch Benn, Katy Brand, Neil Edmond, Richard Herring, Charlie Higson, Matthew Holness, Rufus Hound, Robin Ince, Phill Jupitus, Tim Key, Stewart Lee, Michael Legge, Al Murray, Sara Pascoe, Reece Shearsmith and Danielle Ward.

Purchase from Amazon or Hive or Waterstones or your local bookshop. 

What happens when mirth turns to murder? When the screams are not from joy, but flesh-ripping pain? Dead Funny: Encore is the second helping of monstrous tales from the brightest lights in UK comedy. Award winners Robin Ince and Johnny Mains team up for this second exploration of the relationship between comedy and horror, the dark follow up to 2014’s smash hit debut, Dead Funny.

Featuring stories by: James Acaster, Clare Ferguson Walker, Toby Hadoke, Natalie Haynes, Rufus Hound, Robin Ince, Elis James, Stewart Lee, Josie Long, Alice Lowe, Jason Manford, Alan Moore, Andrew O’Neill, Kiri Pritchard-McLean, John Robertson and Isy Suttie.

Purchase from Amazon or Hive or Waterstones or your local bookshop.