Book description
Spike Milligan's legendary war memoirs are a hilarious and subversive
first-hand account of the Second World War, as well as a fascinating
portrait of the formative years of this towering comic genius, most
famous as writer and star of The Goon Show. They have sold over 4. 5
million copies since they first appeared.
'The most irreverent, hilarious book about the war that I have ever
read' Sunday Express
'Brilliant verbal pyrotechnics, throwaway lines and marvelous
anecdotes' Daily Mail
'Desperately funny, vivid, vulgar' Sunday Times
Back to those haunting days in Italy in 1944, at the foot of
Mount Vesuvius, with lava running in great red rivulets down the
slope towards us, and Jock taking a drag on his cigarette and
saying, 'I think we've got grounds for a rent rebate.'
The fifth volume of Spike Milligan's unsurpassed account of life as
a Bombardier in World War Two sees our hero dispatched from the front
line to psychiatric hospital and from there to a rehabilitation camp.
Considered loony (and 'unfit to be killed in combat by either side'),
he becomes embroiled in his own private battle with melancholy. But it
is music, wit and a little help from his friends - including one
Gunner Harry Secombe - that help carry him through to his first stage
appearances ...
'That absolutely glorious way of looking at things differently. A
great man' Stephen Fry
'Milligan is the Great God to all of us' John Cleese
'The Godfather of Alternative Comedy' Eddie Izzard
'Manifestly a genius, a comic surrealist genius and had no equal'
Terry Wogan
'A totally original comedy writer' Michael Palin
'Close in stature to Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear in his command of
the profound art of nonsense' Guardian
Spike Milligan was one of the greatest and most influential
comedians of the twentieth century. Born in India in 1918, he served
in the Royal Artillery during WWII in North Africa and Italy. At the
end of the war, he forged a career as a jazz musician, sketch-show
writer and performer, before joining forces with Peter Sellers and
Harry Secombe to form the legendary Goon Show. Until his death in
2002, he had success as on stage and screen and as the author of over
eighty books of fiction, memoir, poetry, plays, cartoons and
children's stories.
