Product Description
A Spike Milligan opus, containing everything from classics to hidden gems, with a foreword by Eddie Izzard.This stunning anthology of Spike Milligan's work comprises of favourites from his classic books ('Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall', 'Goodbye Soldier', 'Puckoon'!) as well as scripts from the now-classic Goon Show. Interspersing such comic genius is also a touching collection of letters and his celebrated and liberating writings on depression, demonstrating the diverse talent of a man whose creative output spanned over half a century.A selection of children's poetry and writings ('Unspun Socks for A Chicken's Laundry', 'A Book of Milliganimals', 'Silly Verse for Kids' and much more) reveals Spike's irresistible connection with the childlike imagination and a brillant sense of the ridiculous. All the favourite and funniest stories are there. For those who want an excellent introduction to the mind of Milligan or a welcome return to a much-loved genius, this is the ultimate Milligan reader. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Essential Spike Milligan
Love this guy. To bad he is no longer with us.
A fun book.

RIP Spike
A genius of a funny man...and a real British Ecentric.
He used the "C" word in his books, back in the 50's...why was he not arrested?
This is a beautiful collection, but really you should read all his works. ... Read more

Product Description
Britannia rules the waves TA-RA, but on occasions she waives the rules and Spike is all set to liberate-gasp-Italy. In this fourth volume of war memoirs, Lance-Bombardier Milligan (Spike actually) continues his notorious sage of World War II - from the long remembered outbreak of crabs in monkey to the unfortunate ack-acking of and American killyhawk. Dio mio, is war is a game of cards, someone was cheating. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Great book, still going strong
There's something about MUSSOLINI that does not make it as memorable as his past war books. Granted it is still a great book, and it flows along wonderfully, until after the Christmas program. Everything after that seems rushed up until the abrupt ending. Even still, this book is wonderful, sad, funny and corny (he groans over some of his own jokes). What makes all his memoirs so priceless are not just his jokes, but the people in his 19 Battery that, with their antics, brings the book to life.

* This review is for Spike Milligan's MUSSOLINI: HIS PART IN MY DOWNFALL. How it ended up in EIGHT FEET... is beyond me.

Good old Spike has done it again.
Truly a funny guy, Spike has a way of letting you look at the harsh realities of WWII in a brand new way. Much of his humor gets lost in the shuffle, but what comes through is fabulously funny and just a simple joy to read.

What a fantastically funny, and interesting tale Spike tells
Spike Milligan has surely outdone himself with this book. I found it in my parents attic a couple of years ago, and have read, and re-read it many times. Milligans own 'unique' brand of humour comes pouring through pageafter page in this wonderfully frank and lucid account of his time in theRoyal Artillery in WWII. Tragic and funny- highly reccommended. ... Read more

Product Description
'At Victoria station the R.T.O. gave me a travel warrant, a white feather and a picture of Hitler marked 'This is your enemy'. I searched every compartment, but he wasn't on the train'. Spike Milligan's on the march, blitzing friend and foe alike with his uproarious recollections of army life from enlistment to the landing at Algiers in 1943. Bathos, pathos and gales of drunken laughter, and insane military goonery explode in superlative Milliganese. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

In the end there were no sides. Just living and dead.
Spike Milligan was born in India, the son of an Irish father who was serving in the British Indian Army. He spent most of his life in England and served in the British Army in World War II - though he took Irish citizenship. Milligan was an undoubted comedy genius and was the principal writer of The Goon Show. He was one of the few people who could get away with referring to a member of the British Royal Family - Prince Charles - as a "little grovelling b@$t@rd" on live television. "Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall" is the first of Spike's war memoirs, and runs from September 1939 to January 1943. The majority of the book is set in England and - despite his best attempts to avoid being called up - covers Spike's rather haphazard training and eventual deployment to Algiers. It covers life in the barracks, the training, the pranks, the womanising and even, occasionally, a few fart jokes.

Unsurprisingly, there's an awful lot of daft, Spike-like gags in the book. However, it's not an entirely light-hearted book - there are moments of sadness, and Spike does occasionally have a few serious points to make. Some of his memories from those days clearly caused him a some pain, even so many years later. (For example, Spike was a keen musician in those days - he treasured his record collection and even formed a band with some of his fellow soldiers. Unfortunately, he only had a single record surviving from those days when he wrote the book. "I don't play it much; it creates such vivid memories. I have to go out for a walk; even then it's about three hours before I can settle down again."). Still, a very funny and easily read-book overall - totally recommended.

Tiny (Really Tiny) WWII Warriors
English comic Spike Milligan's story of how dozens of soldiers in his WWII outfit were defeated in their united attempt to heave a huge field tent - "the lump" - into the back of a lorry had me laughing so hard, I literally had to stop reading.

Twenty-four later, I started again.The same hysterical laughter ensued.I couldn't continue.

Unfortunately, I never made it to the end, & not for the same reason as above.

After it came in the mail, the author opened the book.His first reaction, upon seeing the type size - & I quote - was: "Holy...s#%@!"

And by page 110, the eye strain was unbearable.The type size being so minute, I had wondered if it actually could be measured.With the indispensable aid of a magnifying glass, it was.Each letter turned out to be 1/16th of an inch in height.

The insane type size wasn't necessarily fatal.But the lunatic publisher compounded the felony by allotting four ounces of ink to print the entire edition of @ 100,000 copies (the UK WWII-era rationing of ink, evidently, was still in force in 1971).

And in addition to this, the publisher, 38 years ago, had the gall to charge @ $15.00 ("£ 6.99".Fortunately, I paid far less).

For that price in 1971, you could have purchased a hardcover edition of a first rate biography, history, or scientific reference guide.In fact, it will not come as a surprise if I later discover that William Manchester's "The Arms of Krupp" (1968; the German armament juggernaut of World Wars I & II) actually cost less to purchase than this cheaply produced paperback.

AHM was pulped, which was a darned shame.

The other side of WWII, the funnier side.
I have actually only got little to add to the existing reviews here on this page. The man Spike Milligan is a legend, if one that is not known by too many young people these days, and his comic style, his quick wit, and his at times absurd take on things and life in general all shines through in this hillarious account of his experience of the Second World War.

If you can, then get ahold of the audiobook version read by the man himself.

It is shory, not very relevant, but extremely entertaining.

One man's opinion
I first read this book shortly after I had left the military, having served some seven years, two overseas. The book has "the ring of truth" to it, particularly the "barrack room humour." Several sections of the book literally had me in tears. (of laughter.. ) Look for the piece on "the five mile hike." As a soldier, hikes are a fact of life, but the author's description of an early morning "rise and shine" is, as they say, RIGHT ON!!"

Silly drunken licentious farting about in basic training
This is the first of Milligan's WW2 autobiographies, from his call up in June of 1940 to him disembarking for action in Algiers in January 1943. A far cry from Remarque's bleak and horrifying All Quiet on the Western Front, Spike recalls with great fondness the early part of the war - think far more something like a football team or band on tour. This is just training, and whole bunch of young men without much to do given a second chance to muck up at school. Getting drunk, laid, and just farting about - at times literally: get a group of blokes together and, really, is there anything more funny?

I didn't laugh as much at it this second time around, but I remember being constantly in hysterics when I first read the series in a few nights back in '85. But Spike can still be trusted for at least a few laugh out loud moments - more if you're in the right mood. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an irreverent but very funny spoof of The Old Testament in which, in his own inimitable fashion, Spike Milligan gives his version of the best known biblical stories. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

More Milligan The Better!
I am a long time American Milligan fan. I had to give up my book collection of his memoirs, poetry and Goon scripts when I had to suddenly move to assist my aging parents and I couldn't afford to take them with me. Recently I needed a Spike fix. I found this book was available used/cheap and so I took the gamble. I couldn't have been more pleased! I am a non-practicing Jew, so the Bible is not something I have read. This is the way to do it! I admit there are many British references I don't get, but that's a small price to pay for a hearty laugh!! I miss you Spike and hope Heaven is a better place having you there!

No Respect!
To start I'll say that I have not read the Bible, and maybe I never will.

This has to be one of the funniest books I have ever read, and is told in Spikes great way, which is so familiar to anyone who knows the Goons or Spikes recollections of his participation in WW2.

He lets fly on all aspect of the Bible, no holds barred. Apparently there was a lot of sex!

Reading this on public transport will have people staring at you as you laugh out loud with Spike's description of people and events.

Buy it if you love to laugh!

new breat hto old testament :)))
very nice book, If I didnt read the real, I can trust and belive to this one :)))

new breath to old testament :)))
very nice book, If I didnt read the real, I can trust and belive to this one :))) ... Read more

Product Description
This is the second volume of Mr Milligan's reminiscences of World War II. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Jokes, More Jokes, And Tragedy
Milligan can't help himself: he'd be making goony jokes while being eaten by a lion.Here, in the second volume of his war memoirs, he's typically rumbustious and full of bad puns and silliness right in the middle of fighting the war in Northern Africa.He explains the dreadful boredom of waiting for battle and the utterly unreal experience of battle itself: being strafed and bombed and shelled, with loved friends dying a few feet away.He never dwells on the tragedy of war, but you can tell that, thirty or forty years later, he still feels the devastation and loss amidst the japes and jibes.

This is a great war memoir.You really feel what he felt-- the confusion and misery and sometimes the giddy exhilaration of living when others died.You'll laugh out loud at his antics, and you'll see the simple bravery of the British Tommies in WWII.Recommended.

A wonderful war memoir...
A very quick and surprisingly engrossing book. ROMMEL is just as good if not better than its predecessor, Adolf hitler: My Part in His downfall. Milligan does a fantastic job of juggling the humor and the tragedy without overwhelming the reader with the events of the times. His sad nostalgia isn't as pronounced as it is in DOWNFALL, but it is there, as he does take time out from reminiscing to hammer out a paragraph about how he longs for the old days. His writing makes those who never experienced it long for it as well.

Amazingly Funny
This book written by a comedy genius was both marvellously funny and desperately sad at times.I thoroughly enjoyed the bit about the gun going over the edge ... Read more

Product Description
In this last of Spike's hilarious reinterpretations of the classic works of litarature, all the familiar faces of Robert Louis Stevenson's original version appear: Squire Trelawney, Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver. But they are joined by Groucho Marx - and Long John's parrot plays a starring role. This rip-roaring adventure of the hunt for buried treasure unravels faster than Ben Gunn's pants, with plenty of laughs along the way. Rude and irreverent as ever, Spike's rendering of this classic tale is as chock-full of gems as Cap'n Flint's treasure chest. ... Read more

Product Description
Spike Milligan's first novel bursts at the seams with superb comic characters involved in unbelievably likely troubles on the Irish border. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

All I ask is the chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
Spike Milligan was born in India, the son of an Irish father who was serving in the British Indian Army. He spent most of his life in England and served in the British Army in World War II - though he took Irish citizenship. Milligan was an undoubted comedy genius and was the principal writer of The Goon Show. He was one of the few people who could get away with referring to a member of the British Royal Family - Prince Charles - as a "little grovelling b@$t@rd" on live television.

The story is set in Puckoon, a fictional village located a few miles northeast of Sligo . Dan Milligan probably the closest thing to a central character we get - and is, presumably, based a little on Spike himself. Dan lives in one of the Peat Cutters' Cottages - although he isn't actually a peat-cutter. (He's a skiver through and through. The peat ran out several years previously, and the peat-cutters didn't take long in doing the same. The Free State Government then awarded the cottages to those who'd fought for Irish independence). Milligan the character is, naturally, at the centre of much of the book's daftness : for a start, he can hold a conversation with Milligan the author. He isn't at all impressed with Spike's writing abilities, and is particularly unimpressed with his own legs. In an attempt to even things up a little, Spike gives Dan a magical word - squorrox - that'll get him out of any trouble. (Dan could've used that word on his wedding day - his wife's a fearsome looking creature, and is described by some as a "danger to shipping". Dan's two brothers had arrived with his wedding suit, just in time for him to make it to the church...he never forgave them).

Dan's wife sends him to the church to try and find some work - the grass needs cut, and Father Rudden, despite his own good health, is obviously too busy with religious matters to deal with the problem himself. (It's the first time Dan's been to church since his baptism, but at least it'll be a little money for him. Well, it would if the parish wasn't broke - there are so many buttons going into the collection plate, it's a miracle how the faithful can walk to mass without their trousers falling down).

However, Milligan and money aren't Fr Rudden's only problems. Although the majority of Ireland has now wriggled free from the United Kingdom , part of the country is staying put - which means a new border has to be drawn up. Unfortunately, thanks to a group of idiotic bureaucrats, the border gets drawn right through the church grounds. The chapel is in the new Free State , the graveyard is in the UK - which, being a Spike Milligan book, leads to all sorts of complications with Dan Doonan's funeral.

While it is (unsurprisingly) a hugely funny and very daft book, there is the very occasional touch of sadness here and there. (The story of Farmer O'Mara particularly stands out, probably because it contrast so much with the rest of the book). Totally recommended.

One of the funniest books of all time
The title of my review says it all.Shame the film they made from it was so naff: would have disappointed Spike.

The funniest book I have ever read
I first read this book on a friend's recommendation over thirty years ago. While I am a great Goon fan (Spike wrote all of the 150 or so scripts) I didn't always find his other work such as Beachcomber on TV as funny, but this book did not disappoint me one iota. It should be prescribed reading for all those people that have the nerve to say that Monty Python was the natural successor to the Goons or Spike. They didn't even come close (by about a thousand miles!) to the absolute brilliance of his writing.

I have just bought this book through Amazon (via bestbooksbrought2you - thanks Teresa, great service) for a friend's birthday. Even now, I can open the book at ANY page and break down in uncontrollable laughter at the visions he creates on every one. My wife and I still use some of the catch phrases from the book ('Caw!' said the crow - 'B*lls' said Milligan). The world lost a true genius when he died almost three years ago (Feb 2002) and this is shown in his chosen engraving on his tombstone - 'I told you I was ill'......

Depressed? Suicidal? Cure all your ills.....BUY THIS BOOK
This book is quite simply the funniest book ever written.

My Father tried to read this book to me, as a bedtime tale when I was 8 years old. He used to get about 2 pages before falling off the end of the bed laughing. This, to an 8 year old was funnier than the book. To those over 8 who have read this book, nothing is funnier, ever.

I read it first, when I was 14. I laughed so hard and so loudly that I woke up everyone in the house. To this day,the lines (and I paraphrase here, forgive me) "Thank god the ground broke my fall.""Yes its handy for that." sends me into spasms of laughter. I dare you to read this book in a public place and not laugh out loud.

Short and sweet
Oh, how Spike Milligan is missed! His humor is unsurpassed; and completly his own. Puckoon is Milligan being Milligan. The novel moves along at a brisk pace, even when it seems little is happening. Reading everything coming together at the end is pure delight. I can't recommend this book enough... the only drawback is that it's so short it leaves you wanting more. ... Read more

Product Description
In response to popular demand, folks...the fifth volume of spike's uniquely amazing military memoirs of life in the ranks during world war 2. ... Read more

Product Description
Spike Milligan tells his version of the D.H. Lawrence classic story of the lady who embarks on an affair with the gamekeeper in order to fulfil the physical side of her marriage to a paralyzed husband. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

a great parody of a classic
I agree with the first reviewer--the original is funny in its own right, and Spike knows just how to use Lawrence's own phrases to skewer him. A lot of fun if you've read the original.

At least it's better than the original
This book is Spike rewriting Lady Chatterly. The original is quite a turgid mess, and Spike improves it immensly by asking the questions most of us thought when we read the original.

He also improves it quite a bit by adding a lot of humor.

It's worth a read if you like Spike's humor (but I would recommend most of his other books - especially the war memoirs - if you want a worthwhile read). Something to take the taste of DH away is the best way to describe this.

Great Titillating Book
Hi ,

This Book has a moved me like anything. The language Used was very good without any bad usage of filthy language . I would recommend this book to anyone who has a sense of romance. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a collection of the absurd, ridiculous, sublime and characteristically anarchic verse from the brilliant Spike Milligan. With his very own illustrations, this collection, which includes the famous On the Ning Nang Nong will make you laugh from the bottom of your belly - just like Spike did. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Silly Fun
My little 9 month old loves hearing these rhymes and my cousins 6 & 7 love reciting them. I love Spike Milligan, one of hs other books 'Badjelly the Witch' is the absolute favourite bedtime read in this house.

Silly Verse for Kids
If you own a young kid - or are owned by some, you must read them the poems in this book. My children have long flown the coupe - but still remember these verses. A great gift to share from a wonderful commedian.

Just like it says
I bought a copy of this book for my son, to replace the copy I had when I was his age. Milligan had a unique way of seeing the world - his verses will make you laugh whatever your age.

My niece took my original copy when she was 7. She is 11 now and still recites every line of "Nang Ning Nong" off by heart. The enjoyment she got from learning the silly poems in this book inspired her later to become quite a creative writer herself. ... Read more

Product Description
"Milligan's War" is the one-volume selected edition of Spike Milligan's war memoirs, published to celebrate the seventieth birthday of Britain's funniest old soldier on 16 April, 1988. Adolf Hitler, Monty, Mussolini, Rommel (who?) - all played their modest parts in the second world war and the shaping of human destiny, but we all know where the real action was...Milligan's war documents in words and pictures. It is the most scurrilous, bizarre and certainly the most hilarious military career embarked upon by any bombardier of the 56th heavy regiment, royal artillery, ever. ... Read more

Product Description
A collection of some of Spike Milligan's most recent articles in which he brandishes his quill at a selection of his passions, frustations, interests and experiences, ranging from antiques to rugby and beach life Australian style. There are also essays on psychiatry and memories of Peter Sellers and the Goon Shows. Life in the Scunthrope boarding-house of Mrs Thrill - an every day story of far from ordinary folk. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great Brit humour!
If you love Spike Milligan or witty Brit humor, get this big book cheap! It,s funny as all get out (whatever that means!) hours of laffs ;-) ... Read more

Product Description
Comedy writer John Antrobus takes the reader on a magical mystery tour around the mind of Spike Milligan. Enter a world of words, written absurdities and crazy conversations. Abandoning army life, Antrobus arrives at Milligan's office where a sign reads 'Do not disturb, I'm disturbed enough already!' They went on to write several Goon shows together, the surreal comedy play The Bedsitting Room, and many TV sketches. Comrades together, John and Spike produced laughter for the world and John continues that tradition gloriously within these pages. This book is an hysterically funny evocation of mad times with scenes you could never invent. ... Read more

Product Description
This unique anthology of Spike's poems and stories for children presents his classic children's books in a way they have never been seen before. The large format gives ample scope to make the most of Spike's own illustrations, lovingly coloured specially for this book. The anthology comprises Silly Verse For Kids (1959), The Bald Twit Lion (1968), A Book of Milliganimals (1968). Unspun Socks From A Chicken's Laundry (1981), Sir Nobonk and the Terrible, Awful, Dreadful, naughty, Nasty Dragon (1982) and Startling Verse For All The Family (1987). Spike does not regard children as small grown-ups, but as an entirely different species who live in a secret, magical world which very few adults understand. His poems were inspired by listening to his own children, and subsequently his grandchildren, and marvelling at the way they could invent new words or incorporate sound effects into their everyday language. In 'borrowing' their language, Spike has created a range of poems and stories which are a delight to read to younger children, for older children to read themselves, or for grown-ups recapture some of the magic. ... Read more