War Memoirs Adolf Hitler Volume 1: My Part In His Downfall (Spike Milligan War Memoirs) - Softcover

Milligan, Spike

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0241958091 ISBN 13: 9780241958094

Publisher: Viking, 2012

Synopsis

Adolf Hitler: My Part on His Downfall is volume One of Spike Milligan's outrageous, hilarious, legendary War Memoirs. '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 . . .' 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. '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.

About this title

About the Author

The 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. He was the creator, principal writer and performer of the infamous Goon Show. Spike received an honorary CBE in 1992 and Knighthood in 2000. He died in 2002.

Review

The most irreverent, hilarious book about the war that I have ever read * Sunday Express * Brilliant verbal pyrotechnics ... throwaway lines and marvelous anecdotes * Daily Mail * Desperately funny, vivid, vulgar * Sunday Times * Close in stature to Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear in his command of the profound art of nonsense * Guardian * 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 Manifestly a genius, a comic surrealist genius and had no equal -- Terry Wogan A totally original comedy writer -- Michael Palin

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0241958091
• ISBN 13: 9780241958094
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144