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Product Description
Product Description
'At Victoria station the R.T.O. gave me a travel warrant, a white feather and a picture of Hitler marked "This is your enemy." I searched every compartment, but he wasn't on the train...' Spike Milligan's on the march, blitzing friend and foe alike with his uproarious recollections of army life from enlistment to the landing at Algiers in 1943. Bathos, pathos and gales of drunken laughter, and insane military goonery explode in superlative Milliganese.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
About the Author
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 has since become famous as a humorous scriptwriter and actor in both films and broadcasting. Spike received an honorary CBE in 1992.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
40 of 40 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Before there was Python, there were the Goons. And before the Goons, there was Spike Milligan. In the six-book series that begins with "Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall", Milligan charts his own odyssey through World War II.
There's plenty of Milliganesque lunacy here, many many laughs, and not a little pathos, all told in an unabashedly sentimental and frequently endearingly naive tone. From the first page, where "a man named Chamberlain who did Prime Minister impressions got on the radio and said we were at war with Germany" to induction, training and eventual departure for North Africa, Milligan captures the essential unpreparedness and paradoxically indomitable spirit that infused the British war effort. The results are touched both by Milligan's own manic humor and the black depression that was its counterpart, and against which he struggled for much of his life.
A warning- Milligan's prose is addictive. You will not be able to stop with "Hitler", but will be forced into the continuing story in "Rommel? Gunner Who?", "Monty: His Part in My Victory" and "Mussolini: His Part in My Downfall". It just gets more loony, but it's a must-read.
48 of 50 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'm usually not one to read autobios, but since it is Spike Milligan I made the exception. It was funny, just as I expected it to be, but there were parts that were very moving and sad; as should be expected I suppose for a WWII novel. His accounts of the absurd are always dead on hilarious, and I found myself reading a passage over and over and just cracking up.
I knew that Spike suffered from depression, and I think in parts it was very apparent. The places that are especially poignant are when he relates a humorous tale, and then explain how he visited the place years later, and how the memories are too much for him to bear. In one particular paragraph he laments: "Oh, Yesterday, how you plague me!"
I love Spike Milligan and his comedy, and have read several run-of-the-mill internet bios on him but his own biography really brings him to life. A great read!
I knew that Spike suffered from depression, and I think in parts it was very apparent. The places that are especially poignant are when he relates a humorous tale, and then explain how he visited the place years later, and how the memories are too much for him to bear. In one particular paragraph he laments: "Oh, Yesterday, how you plague me!"
I love Spike Milligan and his comedy, and have read several run-of-the-mill internet bios on him but his own biography really brings him to life. A great read!
37 of 39 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Anyone who has listened to the Goons will know that Spike is one of those rare people who has an innate knack for comic writing.
`Adolf Hitler: My part in his downfall' is the first volume of Spike's war memoirs and I read this plus the second volume (Rommel? Gunner Who?) in a single sitting.
In the first volume, Spike puts his own unique spin on his experiences in WW2 starting from training at Bexhill-on-Sea (and not a batter-pudding hurler in sight!) to his posting in North Africa and manages to be laugh-out-loud funny and genuinely sad at the same time. I don't normally go for `war stories' but this is a genuine telling-it-like-it-is tale modified by Milligan's unique genius.
It's a good read in its own right, but any Goon fan will immediately notice the genesis of Goons-type humour in Spike's exchanges with his mate Harry Edgington (we dont' encounter the `other' Harry until the end of book two!)
For best results, read in conjunction with `Rommel? ...' but don't do it in a public place - you'll probably laugh too much!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Adolf Hitlae My Part In his Downfall
Having always been an ardent Spike Milligan fan,I decided to start reading his books,and I must say this book is brilliantly written with amusing illustrations,and really had me... Read more
Published 16 days ago by Owain
In the end there were no sides. Just living and dead.
Spike Milligan was born in India, the son of an Irish father who was serving in the British Indian Army. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Craobh Rua
Spike!
A superb read!!!!
Very funny book, the author has a great way with words, and a natural humour! Read more
Very funny book, the author has a great way with words, and a natural humour! Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mr M
Read it
Autobiography of a young mans conscription into WW2 and the subsequent experiences.
So happens to be Spike Milligan. Read more
So happens to be Spike Milligan. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Iain
A war classic - and very funny
Spike Milligan was a huge influence on post-war British comedy, particularly the Monty Python surrealist wing. Read more
Published 5 months ago by C. Young
Entry point to the wonderful series of Spike's hilarious, touching and...
Spike Milligan trained and fought with the 56th Heavy Artillery Regiment in Tunisia and Italy during WW2. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Chris Lee
soooooooooooooo funny!
classic milligan describes how he got involved in WW2 and how be brought the third reich to its knees. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Eamonn Mc Girr
brilliant gift
This was bought for my other half as part of his birthday pressy. I might as well have left the rest this book is top of the giggle parade.
Published 22 months ago by MEXX
Comic masterclass
If there was a nobel prize for comedy then this would surely have bagged the honour for Milligan. There are many many books, films , documentaries that focus on the bravery and... Read more
Published on 22 Jan 2010 by Martin Mcauley
I judged this book by it's cover!!
Good book, good condition. Took a while to get to me (3 weeks) but worth the wait
Published on 15 Jan 2010 by D. Mccabe
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