Спайк Миллигэн - все книги по циклам и сериям | Книги по порядку

In this, the first of Spike Milligan's uproarious recollections of life in the army, our hero takes us from the outbreak of war in 1939 ("it must have been something we said"), through his attempts to avoid enlistment ("time for my appendicitus, I thought") and his gunner training in Bexhill ("there was one drawback. No ammunition") to the landing at Algiers in 1943 ("I closed my eyes and faced the sun. I fell down a hatchway"). Filled with bathos, pathos and gales of ribald laughter, this is a barely sane helping of military goonery and superlative Milliganese.

With his lightning-quick wit, unbridled creativity and his ear for the absurd, Spike Milligan revolutionized British comedy, leaving a legacy of influence that stretches from Monty Python's Flying Circus to the work of self-confessed acolytes such as Eddie Izzard and Stephen Fry today.
Throughout his life Milligan wrote prolifically: scripts, poetry and fiction, as well as several volumes of memoir, in which he took a somewhat flexible approach to the truth. At last, in this single, gloriously entertaining selection from across his works, Milligan's whole life is laid bare from start to finish, and all in his own words.
From his childhood in India, through his early career as a jazz musician and sketch-show entertainer, his spells in North Africa and Italy with the Royal Artillery, to that fateful first broadcast of The Goon Show and beyond into the annals of comedy history, this is the autobiography Milligan never wrote.

"I had not informed my parents of my return, I wanted it to be a lovely surprise; it was, for me f they were away..."

The seventh and last volume of Spike Milligan's memoirs sees our hero returning from war and Italy... but to what? Aside from shooting large, inaccurate guns at Germans, all he has done for five long years is blow a trumpet, tell rude jokes and write and perform sketches for the entertainment of bored and murderous soldiers - who on earth is going to pay a civilian to do more of that? From the giddy heights of Hackney Empire to a Zurich freak show and beyond, Spike makes his way through the backwaters of showbiz, first as band musician then as one-man wild-act, and eventually in the company of a group of like-minded comedians called Harry Secombe, Michael Bentine and Peter Sellers. They decide to call themselves The Goons...

А voice is calling across the land, "Bombardier Milligan." "Bombardier Milligan is dead," I replied in a disguised voice. The voice replied, "Then he's going to miss his breakfast." The fourth volume of Spike Milligan's legendary account of his time in the army during the Second World War begins as he and his regiment land in sunny Italy in 1943 ("The ship touched the beach very gently, so gently I suspect it's not insured"). After a bout of Sandfly Fever, from which he soon recovers ("I'm ready to be killed again"), our plucky hero is piddled on by a farm dog ("Mussolini's revenge?"), before forging his way inland towards the…

"It's all over, von Arnheim has surrendered and he's very angry." "This could mean war..." The third volume of Spike Milligan's laugh-a-line account of life as a gunner in the Second World War resumes on the eve of victory in North Africa. Now Britain's looniest war hero must combat some of the direst threats a soldier has ever faced: boredom ("Christ, I just thought of Catford"), a cold ("In this weather?" "Yed."), moving camp ("It's a sort of Brighton with camels"), relaxing on the beach ("Life was golden, and we were the assayers"), moving camp again ("We're already somewhere else"), a visit to Carthage ("It's terrible, it's like…

"Му namer is Maria Antoinetta Fontana, but everyone call me Toni."
"I'm Spike, sometimes known as stop thief or hey you."
"Yeser, I know."

The sixth volume of Spike Milligan's off-the-wall account of his part in the Second World War sees our hero doing very little soldiering. Because it's 1946. Rather, he is now part of the Bill Hall Trio - a 'Combined Services Entertainment', inflicted on unsuspecting soldiers across Italy and Austria - and is largely preoccupied with the unbearably beautiful ballerina Ms Toni Fontana ('Arghhhhhhhhh!). But he must enjoy it while he can, before he is demobbed and sent home to Catford - and he does...

Васк 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 the Second World War sees our hero dispatched from the front line to a 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...

The second volume of Spike Milligan's legendary recollections of life as a gunner in the Second World War sees our hero in battle in North Africa - eventually. First, there is important preparation to be done: extensive periods of loitering ('We had been standing by vehicles for an hour and nothing had happened, but it happened frequently'), psychological toughening ('If a man dies when you hang him, keep hanging him until he gets used to it') and living dangerously ('No underwear!'). At last the battle for Tunis is upon them ...

The story is based on the lives of Spike Milligan's own parents and of other members of his family. Set in the late Victorian era and illustrated with photographs from the family albums, it describes their life in India.

This tribute to one of the world's greatest ever entertainers is a must for all Milligan fans. For the first time, this diverse and thrilling selection of scripts, sketches, poems, prose and nonsense is available in paperback.

The combination of quickfire wit and downright silliness is supported by contributions from some of showbusiness' greatest entertainers, including Barry Humphreys and Ronnie Scott.