Spike Milligan Collected War Audiobooks - Bob129.txt
Spike Milligan Collected War Audiobooks
These books were written by Spike Milligan about his part in WW2. They are read by the author and were written in this order;
1. Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall (1971)
"Hitlarious! 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."
The first of Spike Milligan's war autobiographies was first published in 1971. The book spans from when Britain declares war on Germany to when Milligan lands in Algeria as a part of the Allied liberation of Africa. The book was made into a film and adapted into a stage play.
2. "Rommel?" "Gunner Who?" (1974)
Spike Milligan's second volume of war autobiography was published in 1974. This book spans events from January to May 1943, during Operation Torch, the Allied liberation of Africa in World War II.
3. Monty: His Part in My Victory (1976)
(This and the previous two books were released and publicised as the first, second and third part respectively of a trilogy.)
'The third volume of Milligan's war biography left me with a determination to repair the omission of not having read the first volume... and an equal determination to look out for the third volume when it appears' - Eric Scott in the Morning Star.
"Look out, Eric Scott - here it is! Britain's looniest war hero completes the third volume of the Milligan memoirs. The nineteenth battery forge into Tunis, cocksure and carefree. They climb an aqueduct with no trousers on (the battery that is; the aqueduct was very well-dressed). Five hundred gunners try to dance with two girls and an old French matron... Up there in Valhalla, Monty's laughing fit to burst."
It recounts a period when the Nazis have been defeated in Africa, and Milligan is not fighting. The book mostly describes Milligan's activities on leave, playing in a band, and minor adventures and tribulations while on duty. Events span from May to September 1943: just after Operation Torch, the liberation of Africa in World War II, to Milligan's embarkation in Salerno, Italy.
4. Mussolini: His Part in My Downfall (1978)
(This was announced as the fourth part of his "increasingly misnamed" trilogy.)
"In this fourth volume of war memoirs, Lance-Bombardier Milligan (Spike actually) continues his notorious saga of World War II - from the long remembered outbreak of crabs in monkey to the unfortunate ack-acking of and American killyhawk. Dio mio, it's war in a game of cards, someone was cheating."
5. Where Have All the Bullets Gone? (1985)
The fifth volume.
Despatched from the front line to psychiatric hospital, and from there to a rehabilitation camp in Afragola where, down-graded to B2, considered loony and 'unfit to be killed in combat by either side', Spike enters a period of khaki limbo which gives him the chance to regroup forces in his own private war against melancholy. As ever, music, zany wit and a little help from his friends - including one, Harry Secombe - carry him through to his first stage of appearances and eventually on, as history knows, to fame and glory."
6. Goodbye Soldier (1986)
"A little known historical fact:
At the end of the 2nd World War many of our boys sustained severe attacks of entertainment at the hands of Lance-Corporal Milligan and his jazz band.
Outbreaks ocurred in Rome, Venice, Vienna and Krumpendorf (that well-known groin disease), and no soldier escaped the tortures that were inflicted by the Combined Services Entertainment.
But while Tommy suffered, Milligan, newly demobbed, became more and more spazonkled, nay, spazonkified with Toni, the beautiful ballerina. Honestly. He's got the photographs to prove it.
In Italy, in love and in civvies, could Milligan forget his native Catford? You bet your life he could!"
7. Peace Work (1992)
"Back from the land of lasagne, Spike picked up his instrument and his career as a jazz musician. With the Bill Hall Trio (sensational variety act) he played to audiences smaller than the band itself. But fame lurked ahead or rather in Blackpool, Germany, Zurich, Italy and all stations south. It was the Ann Lenner Trio, however, that was to provide the springboard for Spike's leap into a solo career - and did it take off!
He toured Germany performing his one-man wild act, turned to scriptwriting and teamed up with the men who were to share the spotlight - and the microphone - with him for many hilarious years. They were Harry Secombe, Michael Bentine and Peter Sellers. They became, of course, 'The Goons'. The rest is history.
These books are fantastic, and do not necessarily need to be read in order.
For those who are serious about comedy, the importance of Spike Milligan can be summed up by a comment by Micheal Palin, where he explained that - "All we were really doing in Monty Python was trying to copy Spike!"
A genuis.
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Unabridged
Duration: Many hours
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