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  • Published: 30 July 2012
  • ISBN: 9780241958094
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 144
  • RRP: $26.00

Adolf Hitler

My Part in his Downfall




Reissued for the first time since publication, 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.

  • Published: 30 July 2012
  • ISBN: 9780241958094
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 144
  • RRP: $26.00

About the author

Spike Milligan

Spike Milligan (1918–2002) was a famous British comedian, poet, writer and musician. His wild imagination and madcap humour had a timeless appeal that continues to delight audiences of all ages to this day.
Spike (Terence Alan) was born to British parents in India, where his father, an army captain, was stationed in Poona (Pune). The family lived in India and Rangoon (Yangon) before returning to Britain when Spike was twelve.
When the Second World War (as Spike called it, the Adolf Hitler Show) began, he enlisted and served in the 56th Heavy Regiment as a signaller. During his time in the army he joined the Bill Hall Trio and performed for the troops.
He is perhaps best known for creating, writing and performing the popular 1950s BBC Radio show The Goon Show. He has written several story books and poetry for children. His novels include Puckoon, and he produced seven volumes of war memoirs.
Badjelly the Witch, which Spike wrote for his daughter Jane, was first published in 1973. It was performed on BBC radio in England, and later on Radio New Zealand’s Sunday morning children’s programme.
Spike was awarded an honorary knighthood and CBE for his services to entertainment, and also the British Comedy Awards’ Lifetime Achievement Award. A BBC poll voted him as the ‘funniest person of the last 1000 years’. His poem ‘On the Ning Nang Nong’ was voted Britain’s funniest poem.
Spike died at the age of 83 and his tombstone inscription – ‘I told you I was ill’ – ensures that he will forever be remembered first and foremost as a comic genius.

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Praise for Adolf Hitler

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