Puckoon

Puckoon is Spike Milligan's classic slapstick novel, reissued for the first time since it was published in 1963. 'Pops with the erratic brilliance of a careless match in a box of fireworks' Daily Mail 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. Houses are divided from outhouses, husbands separated from wives, bars are cut off from their patrons, churches sundered from graveyards. And in the middle of it all is poor Dan Milligan, our feckless protagonist, who is taunted and manipulated by everyone (including the sadistic author) to try and make some sense of this mess . . . 'Bursts at the seams with superb comic characters involved in unbelievably likely troubles on the Irish border' Observer 'Our first comic philosopher' 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.

Spike Milligan's legendary war memoirs are a hilarious and subversive first-hand account of the Second World War, as well as a fascinating portrait of the formative years of this towering comic genius, most famous as writer and star of The Goon Show. They have sold over 4.5 million copies. With his lightning-quick wit, unbridled creativity and his ear for the absurd, Milligan revolutionised 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, fiction, as well as several volumes of memoir, in which he took an entirely idiosyncratic approach to the truth. In this ground-breaking work, Norma Farnes, his long-time manager, companion, counsellor and confidante, gathers together the loose threads, reads between the lines and draws on the full breadth of his writing to present his life in his own words: an autobiography - of sorts. 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.

A Spike Milligan opus, containing everything from classics to hidden gems, with a foreword by Eddie Izzard. With a foreword by Milligan-fan Eddie Izzard, this stunning anthology of Spike Milligan's work comprises of favourites from his classic books, (Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall, Goodbye Soldier, Puckoon...) as well as scripts from the now-classic Goon show. Interspersing such comic genius is also a touching collection of letters and his celebrated and liberating writings on depression, demonstrating the diverse talent of a man whose creative output spanned over half a century. A selection of children's poetry and writings (Unspun Socks for A Chicken's Laundry, A Book of Milliganimals, Silly Verse for Kids and much more) reveals Spike's irresistible connection with the childlike imagination and a brillant sense of the ridiculous. All the favourite and funniest stories are there. For those who want an excellent introduction to the mind of Milligan or a welcome return to a much-loved genius, this is the ultimate Milligan reader.

A collection of the absurd, ridiculous, sublime and characteristically anarchic verse from the brilliant Spike Milligan. With his very own illustrations, this collection, which includes the famous On the Ning Nang Nong will make you laugh from the bottom of your belly - just like Spike did.

"Badjelly is the baddest witch there is. Tim and Rose have lost their cow Lucy and are going on a trek to find her. They are captured in an enchanted forest by Badjelly. Will Badjelly make them into boy girl soup?"--Back cover.

Spike Milligan's legendary war memoirs are a hilarious and subversive first-hand account of the Second World War, as well as a fascinating portrait of the formative years of this towering comic genius, most famous as writer and star of The Goon Show. They have sold over 4.5 million copies since they first appeared. '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 Back 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 World War Two sees our hero dispatched from the front line to 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 ... 'That absolutely glorious way of looking at things differently. A great man' Stephen Fry 'Milligan is the Great God to all of us' John Cleese 'The Godfather of Alternative Comedy' Eddie Izzard 'Manifestly a genius, a comic surrealist genius and had no equal' Terry Wogan 'A totally original comedy writer' Michael Palin 'Close in stature to Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear in his command of the profound art of nonsense' Guardian 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.

While 'the border question' raged throughout twentieth-century Ireland, citizens near the border continued with everyday life. Peter Leary uses histories of the Foyle Fisheries dispute, cockfighting tournaments, smuggling, and local conflicts over cross-border roads to explore how the border was experienced and incorporated into people's lives.