War Memoirs Special Edition Milligans War: The Selected Memoirs Of Spike Milligan

by Spike Milligan

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. The most scurrilous, bizarre and certainly the most hilarious military career embarked upon by any bombardier of the 56th heavy regiment, royal artillery, ever. 'The most irreverent, hilarious book about the war that I have ever read' Sunday Express 'Desperately funny, vivid, vulgar' Sunday Times 'Milligan is the Great God to all of us' John Cleese 'The Godfather of Alternative Comedy' Eddie Izzard 'That absolutely glorious way of looking at things differently. A great man' Stephen Fry 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.

Genres: Humor, Nonfiction, Biography, History, Comedy

432 pages, Paperback

First published April 11, 1988

About the author

Terence Alan Patrick Seán Milligan, known as Spike, was a comedian, writer and musician. He was of Irish descent, but spent most of his childhood in India and lived most of his later life in England, moving to Australia after retirement. He is famous for his work in The Goon Show, children's poetry and a series of comical autobiographical novels about his experiences serving in the British Army in WWII. Spike Milligan suffered from bipolar disorder, which led to depression and frequent breakdowns, but he will be remembered as a comic genius. His tombstone reads 'I told you I was ill' in Gaelic.

Reviews

[Jan-Maat]

Selection from Spike Miligan's multi volume war memoirs, I think on the strength of this one book I'd be disinclined to read the whole thing on the basis that its the best bits rather than the boring ones that make it into the film trailer. With the passage of lengthy and leaden years the stand out moments, for me at least, were his father waking him up one night to insist that in all his years in India he had never shot a tiger I presume alcohol had been involved,and his shell shock in Italy, when he ran down the slope of a hill crying uncontrollably of a sudden, which struck me as a more reasonable and understandable reaction to having been under fire than continuing to trudge up through southern Italy as part of an artillery battery he mentions that one of the other future goons had a related experience - finding himself in Sardinia and suddenly overwhelmed with a fear of big cats - not a typical part of the fauna of that island, as I remember Miligian has a drawing in the book he made of how he imagined that scene, things having changed somewhat since the great war he was not shot for showing insufficient desire to die for King and Empire but instead was left to slowly recover during which period he met an attractive young Italian woman and drifted into entertainment. When news comes through of the fall of Berlin he doesn't believe that Hitler was dead, imagining that he had been swept off to Siberia instead. A good read that mentions in passing the prodigious number of shells fired at the battle of El Alamein, required and victorious drunkenness in North Africa, and a demonstration of the army's concern for the sexual health of its soldiers evidenced by the provision of one (1) prophylactic utensil (careful reuse presumably recommended) a worm's eye view of WWII.

[Sachahaworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never read any Spike Milligan before, so I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked this up. This book is an abridged collection of his several volumes of memoirs from his time as a soldier in the Second World War.

Milligan was recruited as a gunner and spends the first part of his deployment stationed in North Africa. He moves, with the invasion of Sicily, up into Italy where he is struck down with acute post-traumatic stress disorder after a particularly harrowing incident where an enemy shell hits one of the his group's armouries, burning several colleagues alive. After this he is declared unfit to fight and is passed from pillar to post with other soldiers declared mentally and physically unfit to fight, and whom the army haven't quite figured out what they're going to do with. Eventually, he is recruited to the Artist Corps (he was already a trumpet player) and spends the rest of the war entertaining the rest of the troops.

The story is written as a first hand account of war, which is a naturally engaging style. You can believe that these events happened and you see them through Milligan's eyes. His writing style is comedic, and is filled with puns. If you ever wondered what would be the result of Tim Vine ghost writing for Andy McNab, this is it.

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

The late great comic Spike Milligan and his World War 2 memoirs. He actually wrote a series of books of his years in the military - but this is sort of a 'best of' collection. He was a fantastic wit with a surreal take on life. A remarkable talent.

[Graeme Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book lies on my nightstand, thumbed and yellowing. I pick it up and read it randomly, like others might their bible. Brilliantly funny, human and in places sad, Milligan's account gives war the treatment it deserves.

[Quinn Lavender · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've got to call time of death on this one, it's been sitting, half finished, on my shelf for over a year. I'm torn on this book; many parts have been hilarious, and yet it still sits there unfinished. I think it is due in large part to me not understanding some of the British words, phrases, WWII actors, and politicians that made me feel like I wasn't really "getting it."

The described image of a half-shaven, naked soldier in North Africa covering his sensitive parts with his helmet is an image not soon to be lost from my memory.

Still, I admire Milligan's sense of humor and will try to find something of his on the TV to see if that loses less in translation.

[Ajay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spike Milligan's books are always full of great humour, and this book is no exception.

The book contains stories and anecdotes about Spike's World War Two endeavours and specifically about his part in Hitler's downfall.

If you want to laugh out loud, purchase this book as you will not be disappointed. A++++

[Theo Kokonas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of all Milligan's war memoirs in one hardback volume. Much of this work is comedy gold and has certainly stood the test of time even though it's decades old. If you enjoy good examples of British Humour then you can't go far wrong with this.

[Brilliant · Rating 2 out of 5]

24个比利看完，也许会觉得有点戛然而止意犹未尽，可故事其实停在没有结束的时候也许是正确的选择。这部续集冗长、繁杂、混乱又平淡，实在是不值得一读的作品。但也许这就是生活，几个瞬间可能比最疯狂的剧本还疯狂，但最终还是不可避免的归于平淡。

[Wyktor Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best bits of the greatest war memoirs in the English language.
A must read for all Spike and Goons fans.

[Jerry Capote · Rating 5 out of 5]

I challenge anyone to read this book and not laugh out loud! Spike was a comedy genius!

[Kevin Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spike Milligan is hilarious and endearing. His war stories are funny and emotional, and he blends them magnificently. He finds humor during horrible and terrifying moments of combat. But he never jokes about the friends he lost or when soldiers showed courage or fear and real human reaction.

This is a great book that I think really shows what war is like, and how real young men act in battle.

[Matthew Hoskins · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the whole story.

[Steve Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

All the best bits from Spike Milligan’s war diaries. No substitute for the complete books but worth a look for the lazy amongst us that cannot be bothered to read the full works.