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.
In the Bible, according to author: "In the beginning God created the Heaven and Earth and darkness was upon the face of the deep; this was due to a malfunction at Lots Road Power Station... And God said 'Let there be light'." This title presents the author's version of the best known biblical stories.
The Old Testament: but more mad, more merry, more... Milligan!
"And God said, Let there be light; and there was light, but Eastern Electricity Board said He would have to wait until Thursday to be connected."
There have been many interpretations of the Old Testament over the centuries but never one quite like this. Spike Milligan has rewritten, in his own inimitable style, many of the best-known stories of the Old Testament, featuring characters like King "my brain hurts" Solomon, the great oaf of a giant Goliath and the lesser-known crossword clue, Hushai the Archite.
Believers and non-believers alike will enjoy this hilarious re-working, where the jokes, jests and jibes tumble over each other from Chapter One, Verse One until kingdom come.
When Murphy wakes up one morning with the thickest of hangovers, the last thing he needs is to be whacked over the head with a frying pan by his wife. While he's knocked senseless, his mind trawls back through his misadventures in every area of his squandered life.
I never felt more like kicking so I kicked him in the goolies and they swelled up like melons. He had to put the harness on me while balancing his balls with one hand and could only move very slowly. In time I got used to everything (and he got used to swollen balls) and I could do my work as well as my mother. I used to wash up after dinner.
This collection brings together the most beloved children's poems. Poems such as "The Owl and the Pussycat" to "Us Two" and "Chocolate Cake" should amuse and delight children and adults alike. The collection includes the modern and the classics, from A.A. Milne to Pam Ayres.
Sherlock Holmes and his trusty companion, Dr Watson, are working together once more to solve the mystery at Baskerville Hall. This time, however, there's something fishy about the hound, a woman cries in the night, Guiness and Newcastle Brown are taken intravenously and the Berlin Philharmonic keep running out of things to play...
In 1982, leading psychiatrist and TV presenter Anthony Clare interviewed Spike Milligan for the radio series In The Psychiatrist's Chair, a show in which Clare led revealing interviews with a range of celebrities.
Spike did not regard children as small grown-ups, but as an entirely different species who live in a secret, magical world which very few adults understand. His poems were inspired by listening to his own children, and subsequently his grandchildren. This is an anthology of Spike's poems and stories for children.
In this last of Spike's hilarious reinterpretations of the classic works of litarature, all the familiar faces of Robert Louis Stevenson's original version appear: Squire Trelawney, Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver. Rude and irreverent as ever, Spike's rendering of this classic tale is as chock-full of gems as Cap'n Flint's treasure chest.
This version of Robin Hood has Robin and his merry men when the King's deer manage to evade their arrows, dining out at McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken and eating jam sandwiches, Nevertheless, they are still more than willing to do battle with Robin's arch enemy Sir Guy de Custard Gisborne.
From the giddy heights of Hackney Empire to a Zurich Freak Show and beyond, the author makes his way through 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...
Collects from one of the greatest comics of the twentieth century to some of its most famous politicians, actors, celebrities and rock stars (as well as a host of unlikely individuals on some surprising subjects): rounded teabags ('what did you do with the corners?'); and backless hospital gowns ('beyond my comprehension').
Offer an account of author's part in World War Two that 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.
Offers an account of life as a Bombardier in World War Two that sees our hero dispatched from the front line to psychiatric hospital and from there to a rehabilitation camp.
With his lightning-quick wit, unbridled creativity and his ear for the absurd, Milligan revolutionised British comedy. Throughout his life, Milligan also wrote prolifically - scripts, poetry, fiction, as well as several volumes of memoir, in which he took an entirely idiosyncratic approach to the truth.
Offers an account of author's time in the army during World War Two that 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').
Offers a recollection of life in the army. In this title, our hero takes us from the outbreak of war in 1939 ('it must have been something we said'), through the author's attempts to avoid enlistment and his gunner training in Bexhill to the landing at Algiers in 1943.
In 1924 the Boundary Commission is tasked with creating the new official division between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. Through incompetence, dereliction of duty and sheer perversity, the border ends up running through the middle of the small town of Puckoon. This book deals with this topic.
