Spike Milligan - Spike Milligan

Spike Milligan's letters contain some of the best material he ever wrote . . .

Collected here for the first time are the funniest, rudest and most revealing of them - most of which have never been seen before - 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?')

- backless hospital gowns ('beyond my comprehension')

- heartfelt apologies ('pardon me for being alive')

and the imbalance of male and female ducks in London's parks. Here, then, is the real Spike Miligan: obsessive, rude, generous and relentlessly witty.

'Milligan's zaniness shines through'
Telegraph

'The godfather of alternative comedy' Eddie Izzard

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.

A legendary and iconic figure, Spike Milligan was born at Ahmednagar in India in 1918. He received his first education in a tent in the Hyderabad Sindh desert and graduated from there, through a series of Roman Catholic schools in India and England, to the Lewisham Polytechnic. He then plunged into the world of Show Business, seduced by his first stage appearance, at the age of eight, in the nativity play of his Poona convent school. He began his career as a band musician, but became famous as a humorous scriptwriter and actor in both films and broadcasting.
Over the course of his astonishing career, he wrote over eighty books of fiction, memoir, poetry, plays, cartoons and children's stories. He was the creator, principal writer and performer of the infamous Goon Show, and went on to become one of the greatest and most influential comedians of the twentieth century. Spike received an honorary CBE in 1992 and Knighthood in 2000. He died in 2002.

The Godfather of Alternative Comedy
Eddie Izzard

Milligan is the Great God to all of us
John Cleese

Close in stature to Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear in his command of the profound art of nonsense
Guardian

That absolutely glorious way of looking at things differently. A great man
Stephen Fry

Manifestly a genius, a comic surrealist genius and had no equal
Terry Wogan

A totally original comedy writer
Michael Palin

Pulls together bundles of Milligan's wonderfully witty and wacky correspondence spanning four decades
Daily Mail