Treasure Island - Spike Milligan

Advantages: Good for those interested in Milligan
Disadvantages: Not for the casual reader

...The biographer as protagonist? I had read reviews claiming Humphrey Carpenter’s style was too intrusive in this biography of the late Goon Spike Milligan and I can see where that came from. I do not feel a biography of a comedian should be funny, at least there will be bits where you appreciate the subject’s comic genius but there is no need for the biographer to quip and jest and join in the fun. However shortly after I finished reading this Humphrey Carpenter gave up the ghost so I will not criticise him any further. To be fair he had written a number of very good biographies, the ones about Auden, Britten and Tolkien probably being the best I have read. So, to Spike’s biography. Spike Milligan achieved fame for his work with “The Goons” a pioneering team (Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and briefly Michael Bentine) on radio who... Read review

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Advantages: Written by a comedic genius with some very funny lines
Disadvantages: Some not so funny lines

...Spike Milligan has written a series of books giving his "version" of classic tales. In "Robin Hood According To Spike Milligan" he transports us back to the England of bad Prince John. Although at first he sticks quite closely to the original story of Robin and his Merry Men there are some vital differences. Maid Marion turns out to be a pole vaulter, Little John is now known as Big Dick, and somehow Groucho Marx ends up in Sherwood Forest as well. There are some extremely funny lines demonstrating that surreal humour that Spike developed in the Goons back in the fifties. For instance there is an emphasis on jam sandwiches and porridge as well as bows and arrows. However, sometimes you feel the story lagging and Spike working hard to try and make it funny. Some of the jokes are just off-colour and not worthy of the man who created Eccles... Read review

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Advantages: A biased account of the life of this Irish comic genius and lunatic!
Disadvantages: Perhaps too revealing and not to everyone's taste.

...In writing this review I am keenly aware that Spike Milligan may not appeal to everyone as an icon of British comedy. I only became interested in him through his improbable wartime memoirs, his various books of comic verse and his insane novels, Puckoon and the Looney. My curiosity was heightened by his TV appearances on talk shows in his later years, here it appeared was a true eccentric with a genuine twinkle in his eye. Then when Humphrey Carpenter produced a biography of Milligan I just had to read it. After all, he had done such a fine job with JRR Tolkien and other English stalwarts. Spike (Terence Alan) Milligan KBE was born in Ahmednegar, India on the 16th April 1918, the son of Irish born Leo Milligan, an officer in the British Army. Apparently Leo was quite a colourful character who often dressed up as a cowboy and did... Read review

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