"How long was I in the army? Five foot eleven." Goodbye Soldier

Advantages: A fantastically funny book from a fantastically funny man.
Disadvantages: Can lead to sore sides from laughing out loud.

..."My Father had a profound influence on me, he was a lunatic." Spike Milligan 1918 - 2002 I feel very lucky to be old enough to have been around for a lot of the time that Spike Milligan was entertaining us - he was a comedy great and helped shape the future of British comedy. One of his well known fans is Prince Charles ( an avid Goons fan)and Milligan caused quite a stir by calling him a "little grovelling bastard" on live television in 1994..He later sent a message to Prince Charles, saying "I suppose a knighthood is out of the question?" Actually he and the Prince were very close friends and he actually received an honorary CBE in 1992. Born as Terence Alan Patrick Seán Milligan in India to an english mother and an Irish father who was serving in the British Army he began writing comedy sketches in his late teens...

oldchem 06.06.2009 · Read review
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Review of Goodbye Soldier - Spike Milligan

I wouldn't expect anything less from Spike!

Advantages: Hilarious and parents won't fall asleep reading it
Disadvantages: Can't think of anything....

...I grew up as an avid fan of Spike Milligan thanks to my English father who lived for the Goon Show etc. I bought this book on a whim and have since decided to shop impulsively more often! What a beautiful book it is. It is hard to decided which is better - the illustrations or the stories and poems. I should point out that the book does infact contain Spike's own illustrations. He has such a vivid imagination that the most ridiculous stories seem real and believable to the reader. I have a sneaking suspicion that although this is a childrens book it was really being aimed at parents although my 9 year old has laughed himself to sleep when I have read bits to him. I particularly recommend Sir Nobonk and the Terrible, Awful, Dreadful, Naughty, Nasty Dragon, although if you can get your mouth around the names and language...

ally2kc 04.05.2006 · Read review
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Review of A Children's Treasury of Milligan. Classic Stories and Poems - Spike Milligan

The Last Laugh

Advantages: A bonus for Milligan fans
Disadvantages: There won't be any more

...Norma Farnes was Spike Milligan's manager and agent for 36 years until his death in 2002. During that time she became his biographer as well as his close friend and confidante, and when the mood took him, as it frequently did, she would assume the additional roles of lackey and whipping-boy. Professionally, Farnes probably knew him better than most, learning over the years how to recognise the onset of his well-documented bouts of depression, and subsequently understanding how best to deal with them. In "Box 18: The Unpublished Spike Milligan", Norma Farnes has brought together a collection of Milligan's 'ideas', which, as she explains in her affectionate but unsentimental foreword, were those pieces of work which he would begin and then file away, either to be returned to as and when inspiration came to him, or to be discarded...

silverstreak 18.02.2008 · Read review
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Review of Box 18: The Unpublished Spike Milligan - Spike Milligan

'I told you I was ill.' on his headstone

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...

britum2000 14.09.2006 (18.09.2006) · Read review
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Review of Spike Milligan - Humphrey Carpenter

Goon But Not Forgotten

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...

JoePoirot 15.03.2005 · Read review
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Review of Spike Milligan - Humphrey Carpenter

Why That Daddy Lion Got Glasses On

Advantages: Funny words, funny pictures, it's Spike Milligan for heavens sakes!
Disadvantages: He died. :(

..."Mummy, why this daddy lion got glasses on?" "'Why is this lion wearing glasses.' What lion?" "Yes, that's what I said! [Eyes roll heavenward] This one." "Ooh, Spike Milligan! Shall we read it then?" "Yay! Yes! But why that daddy lion got glasses on?" Do you know what the Gofongo is? Or why his visits to the vet are so frequent? ("He has toes that whistle tunes, And explode! Like toy balloons"). Do you know what the Wiggle Woggle is? Or what he said? ("When I'm standing on my head, I can see the coast of China, And it's very, very, red.") Do you know the difference between the African and the Arctic Elephant? ("- they're colder. Feel one.") Have you ever seen the rare back view of the Three-Legged Hippo? And, most importantly of all, do you know the story of the Bald Twit Lion? No? Well, you should. I do, and now...

jillmurphy 05.11.2002 · Read review
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Review of A Children's Treasury of Milligan. Classic Stories and Poems - Spike Milligan

  Welcome To Your Second Childhood

Advantages: Silly, hilarious fun
Disadvantages: None

..., Turn round and show her yer bum!" So you see, things might have been far worse had I not put my foot down, not that his teacher was any the wiser. It was hardly my son's fault that the poor woman had either never heard of Spike Milligan, or possessed no sense of humour (possibly both), but to be perfectly honest, his choice was always going to be one of the near-two hundred poems contained in this wonderfully crazy anthology of Spike's poems and stories for children. The book had become a firm favourite with both my sons since I'd snapped up a ridiculously cheap copy from the Book People a few months previously, with the aim of adding a little variation to their customary bedtime story routine. This was their first real introduction to poetry of any kind, and to be truthful, I'd expected them to nod off after the first poem or two, but...

silverstreak 08.05.2006 · Read review
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Review of A Children's Treasury of Milligan. Classic Stories and Poems - Spike Milligan

Not one for God fearing Christians

Advantages: Great jokes by one of the greatest comedians of his time
Disadvantages: Can be heavy going and confusing if you don't know the Bible

...This is a controversial book by a controversial man. I could blab on for ages about where he was born, etc, etc but you can read that in other ops anyway. I will just say that Spike Milligan was brought up as a Catholic in Catholic schools and so this book goes against most of his teachings. He has an honorary OBE only. This is because he refused to swear allegiance to the queen. This upset a number of people but it just made my respect for the man greater. It was good to see him stand up for his beliefs rather than crawl and brown-nose just to get an OBE. The book is, to use its full title, The Bible: The Old Testament According to Spike Milligan. I am not going to go for an outright spoiler on this, as how do you spoil a book without copying it word for word? I have decided to give you a run down of the first few chapters...

bigdgaff 19.07.2001 · Read review
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Review of The Bible: The Old Testament - Spike Milligan

A lovely book for all ages

Advantages: Good fun for all ages
Disadvantages: A bit crazy if you don't like Milligans' humour

...I am 47 and a friend of mine has just bought me a copy of the book called A Children?s Treasury of Milligan by Spike Milligan and I couldn?t be more thrilled! Let me explain further ?. When I was a lot younger I had a paperback book called Silly Verse for Kids by Spike Milligan and I really enjoyed reading it. However, I had lent it to someone and it had never been returned. As I couldn?t remember to whom I had lent it, it was lost forever. I happened to be relating this story one day when I was visiting my goddaughter; Rosie aged 8, who loves books. The next time that I visited lo and behold her mom had managed to find this book in the local cheap bookshop, so she had got two copies, one for me and one for Rosie. It is a hardback book and contains all the poems and silly stories that were in my original paperback, plus lots...

SusanLesley 10.01.2002 · Read review
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Review of A Children's Treasury of Milligan. Classic Stories and Poems - Spike Milligan

Everybody's Got To Be Somewhere

Advantages: Funny and real.
Disadvantages: Ends before the shooting starts.

...Spike Milligan was born at Ahmednagar in India on 16th April, 1919. His education began in a tent in the desert there, progressed through various Roman Catholic schools and ended at Lewisham Polytechnic (which I imagine is now called The University of Sarf Landon.) This is the first part of Spike Milligan's war memoirs, described as a "Tommy's eye view" of World War II. Compiled from diaries and letters, and illustrated with photographs and Spike's own sketches, it was intended to be a trilogy but it ended up spanning five volumes. And it's probably the nearest thing we have to a British "Catch-22". Called up in June 1940 despite a slipped disc, he became Gunner Milligan 954024 in the Royal Artillery, and sent to barracks at Bexhill-on-Sea. They don't call them Barracks for nothing. Not only do the men take...

PJE_ 10.04.2001 (11.04.2001) · Read review
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Review of Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall - Spike Milligan