Spike Milligan: the biography

by Humphrey Carpenter

Spike Milligan was one of Britain's best-loved comics as well as one of the most original. In this reassessment of Spike's life and career, biographer Humphrey Carpenter has - through copious research and access to many of those closest to the great man - unearthed a character who could be as difficult and contradictory as he was generous and talented. The creator of The Goons was to influence a whole generation of comics, yet was never to feel fully valued. His periods of depression were matched by periods of high creativity - there were poems, novels, volumes of biography, as well as a television series and a one-man show as Spike searched for his best means of expression. There was also, as revealed here, his inveterate womanising. Married three times and with four children to whom he was devoted, two illegitimate children were to remain barely acknowledged.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Humor, Comedy

352 pages, Hardcover

First published May 24, 2004

About the author

Humphrey William Bouverie Carpenter was an English biographer, writer, and radio broadcaster. He is known especially for his biographies of J.R.R. Tolkien and other members of the literary society the Inklings. He won a Mythopoeic Award for his book The Inklings in 1982.

Reviews

[Dave Lefevre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spike Milligan is one of my intellectual heroes. He throughly entertained about two generations of people in the U.K. while having to deal with severe manic depression. Overall Carpenter's biography is solid. Carpenter only gets off track, in my opinion, when he tries to imply that Spike was more in control of his mood swings than he wanted us to believe. Carpenter also tries to say at one point that Spike might have been Schizophrenic because of his occasional bouts with auditory hallucinations and his sensitivity to certain noises. Maybe is was a touch of bad research as both are common symptoms reported by those suffering a severe depressive mood. In my depression I've had auditory hallucinations myself, but they are aren't to be confused with schizophrenic "voices" as they usually take the form of crashes, bells, or other random noises; in other words they are just brain cells mis-firing.

Carpenter seems to have the bias of someone who has never been personally touched by depression personally or in his family. Good for him, however he doesn't always have enough sympathy for a problem that often debilitated Spike. The attitude the book takes is very nebulous.

Other than that, this book is very solid.

[Amanda Wells · Rating 4 out of 5]

A flawed genius, absolutely. A flawed biography? Yes. But I couldn't rate it too poorly as I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know more about Spike through Carpenter's eyes. I felt the treatment of Spike's mental illness was a little lacking, but otherwise came away feeling I understood his life a little better.

[Elisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spike Milligan was a difficult, unhappy man. Also one of the most brilliant comedians of all time. This is a thorough memoir of one of my comedy gods.

[Angela Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny man, born Terrance, prolific writer of poetry, prose and scripts for adults and children fought with his mental health increasingly through his life. Married repeatedly and father of six (at the last count) he was a nurturing parent. This account of his life from India to the grave shows him as a sensitive chap committed to his beliefs and desperate to entertain, first as a clown then musician and back to clowning on radio, stage, television and film.

[Keith CARTER · Rating 5 out of 5]

A terrific and very interesting read. Being a huge Spike fan I thought I knew almost everything about the man, I didn't, Humphrey Carpenter introduces us to another side to Spike, I will not go into detail as this book should be read. If I could I would give 6 stars.

[Ian Hampton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like so many of my generation grew up with the Goon Show and absolutely loved the program plus all Spikes other output, but Spike the man? should we have ever met up? ......I don't think I would have understood or maybe even actually liked him and that makes me feel ever so slightly sad.

[Keith Astbury · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good book, but as is so often the case with biographies the subject doesn't come out of it so well. But then again it doesn't exactly take a giant leap of the imagination to believe that Spike might be difficult x

[Hilary May · Rating 2 out of 5]

Skim read. Not entirely sure how I ended up with this book as I only really know Spike Milligan from children’s poetry (I love the Ning Nang Nong) and he was patron of a conservation charity I worked for. Interesting in parts, early BBC etc.

[Chris Chinchilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few colloquialisms aside, the book is well written I just ended up liking the subject less by the end. Which is far from The writers fault. Never meet your heroes eh.

[John M · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted this book to be insightful, funny and informative - it was none of these. The problem seems to me to stem from the fact that Carpenter is a self-confessed Goons fan and therefore falls into a variety of traps that prevent him from doing a full and honest job of helping us to find out what made Spike tick. The fact that Spike was a racist is simply brushed aside. The fact that his "Q" programmes were dreadful is simply excused on the basis that earlier stuff was funny. The fact that other people wrote lots of the Goon stuff is basically ignored. Carpenter's style is dreadful - asides,pseudo-Milliganese and the most annoying habit of giving an opinion with nothing to back it up. I did the decent thing and read till the end and then left it in the French campsite where I was staying:I wonder what the French will make of it?

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fabulous biography to read. Spike Milligan was an interesting antagonistic character , but he had a heart of gold. His continuing battle with depression affected his life for a very long time sadly, and this biography by Humphrey carpenter handles that subject matter very carefully and sympathetically.
One of the best biographies I've read in a while.

[Mathew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Difficult man to do a biography on. There can be little sympathy for the flawed genius that was Spike. This book does the job perfectly.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

A complex, difficult man albeit very talented. An informative although not very sympathetic biography.

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am too many steps removed from Spike Milligan to fully appreciate this book. The only bit of his work I'm familar with at all is his poetry which I find very amusing.

[Jon · Rating 1 out of 5]

This rather rotten bio is something of a cut-and-paste, and it is obvious that Carpenter didn't have access to the primary sources. Poor.