Craig Ferguson Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Born in the Scottish town of Glasgow, Craig Ferguson was nominated for a Grammy award and is an Emmy Award-winning comedian, actor, director, producer, and writer.
His portfolio is very diverse with a career that has over the years encompassed television, film, and the stage.

He is also a bestselling author in the New York Times and has done multiple standup specials for the likes of Amazon, Netflix, Comedy Central, and Epix.

As a television personality, Craig Ferguson was the host of the very popular CBS program “The Late Late Show,” which ran for more than a decade and continues to rack up millions of views on YouTube.
In addition to comedy, Ferguson is also a film director and writer with film credits such as Hobo Fabulous, The Big Tease, Tickle Fight, Saving Grace, Just Being Honest, and I’ll Be There among many others.
In 2006, he published “Between the Bridge and the River,” which would become a bestselling title. He would then follow that up with the New York Times bestselling memoir “American on Purpose.”
The latter which he performed live would win the “Best Spoken Word” Grammy Award.

Craig Ferguson was born in Springburn in Glasgow to Scottish Nationalist and post office worker Robert and primary school teacher Janet in 1962.

He spent much of his childhood in Cumbernauld as many Glasgow residents had to move out of their homes, which were being rebuilt after the ravages of the Second World War.

During this time, Ferguson was a very chubby child and this led to him being a constant target for bullies. Things would get better when he went to Cumbernauld High School but he would never finish his high school education.
He dropped out and became an apprentice working under an electronics technician who was working for the Burroughs Corporation.

It was in 1975 that he first visited the United States as a thirteen-year-old.
The reason for the visit to the United States was that his parents thought it would be wise to expose him to other cultures and sent him to spend the holidays with his uncle who lived in New York City’s Long Island.
After graduating from his apprenticeship, he moved to the United States in 1983, and for a time he worked in construction. He would also work at Save the Robots nightclub as a bouncer before moving back home to Scotland.

It was back home in Scotland that Ferguson embarked on his entertainment career, where he was a drummer for punk bands in Glasgow such as “Exposure” and “Night Creatures.”
At some point, he was a member of the “Dreamboys” punk band, which was then fronted by Peter Capaldi. He credits the latter for encouraging and inspiring him to try his hand at comedy.
In 1994, he moved to Los Angeles after Rick Siegel who would become his agent saw him perform at the “Edinburgh Festival” and invited him to the United States.

In the US, he got his first role on “Maybe This Time,” the ABC comedy, where he acted as Logan McDonough the baker.

Ferguson got his biggest breakthrough in America when he got a role in “The Drew Carey Show” as Mr. Wick, the titular character’s boss which he played for more than seven years.
In 2005, he was invited to host “The Late Late Show” on CBS and this would become his most famous gig until he left in 2014. Ferguson hosted several other talk shows after that and also worked in radio before going back to Scotland in 2019.

Craig Ferguson’s work “American On Purpose” is a memoir in which he paints the United States as more of a mystical symbol.
He was hooked on the idea of America and the concept of a better life from a very early age. It was birthed when he was bullied by classmates and beaten by his teachers in Scotland and was afraid of excelling or competing and suffered the punishment in silence.
Living in the grasp of evolutionary paralysis, he used to look very closely into the poverty all around – the lack of support, safety, opportunity, and goods made him convinced that there had to be a better place.
The United States would come to be a representation of that place that would rescue him from the poverty and hopelessness of post-war Glasgow.

In “American on Purpose,” he shows how he put in a huge amount of work, shed tears, spilled blood, and spent money until he found success in Holywood and even became an American citizen.
It was not an easy journey as he had to deal with his self-sabotaging nature, alcohol, drugs, broken hearts, hard knocks, and many false starts.

Craig Ferguson’s “Between the Bridge and the River” is a laugh-out-loud work that tells the story of George and Fraser alongside Leon and Saul.

The first two had been friends as kids in Scotland while the latter two are American half-brothers that spent their childhood in an orphanage.

Fraser is a sleazy televangelist who fled Scotland and went to the United States as his career crumbled amid a sex scandal. His brother George is a terminal cancer victim and is a good guy who is facing cancer and has hardly achieved anything in life.
On the other hand, the half brothers are not your ordinary Americans as one is a perverted man with a good nose for a deal while the other is a son of Frank Sinatra, who has his father’s easy handsomeness voice, and charm.
The Americans rise fast in Hollywood as they go from a talent show to a sitcom and are a mainstay of the tabloids.

Ferguson juggles all the protagonists through time and across the two coasts of the Atlantic. The author also takes aim at all manner of philosophical, cultural, religious, and political beliefs along the way.
But he also balances this with some sort of redemption for the characters and a somewhat typical love story.

“Riding the Elephant” is a lyrical and irreverent memoir full of essays by Craig Ferguson written in his signature humor.

He is a person who has defied the odds for much of his life and has succeeded when he was expected to fail and failed when he should have had success.

This is a candid memoir that provides insights into the recollections and mind of the twisted and unique Scottish American who would become a national hero.

He would become the first TV show host to come up with a robot skeleton sidekick and brought back two men in a horse suit prancing around and made it very entertaining.

In this work, he goes deep into stories that may not be politically correct to post on social media, too graphic for TV, or too meditative to be performed for a stand-up comedy audience.

He also goes deep in discussing his love for Scotland and takes a deep look into the many psychic changes he experienced when he became a father. He also examines mortality and aging, which he asserts was not possible when he was a young man.
Every story, story in the memoir is written in colorful tapestry to show Ferguson as a man who has learned to enjoy, even as he processes the unique trajectory of his life.