Puckoon - Spike Milligan

The Great McGonagall Scrapbook - Spike Milligan

When I bought “Black Beauty – According to Spike Milligan” recently and reviewed it, I had the pleasure of receiving a free book (also by Spike Milligan) that came with it called “The Great McGonagall Scrapbook”. If you have ever seen a TV spinoff (scrapbook style) you will know what I am talking about – lots of pictures, fewer words but good reading material if you are on the loo for 5 mins. This is exactly where The Great McGonagall Scrapbook belongs. Not because it is foul reading mind you, although some of the jokes are a bit vulgar and the poetry absolutely stinks, but because it lacks the strength of a gripping saga it is best read in 5 min snippets. The plot, ...

Black Beauty According to Spike Milligan - Spike Milligan

Being an avid Spike Milligan fan, I decided to read a not-so-well-known book of his – “Black Beauty According To Spike Milligan”. Milligan’s usual style of writing combines poetry and humour with stream-of-thought consciousness and wickedly realistic plots and I expected that this book would be as good as any other he writes – not true. “Black Beauty…” starts off OK with a poem and a joke and a bit of plot but by the time you get to chapter 17 (they are short chapters) the jokes aren’t really that funny (Black Beauty kicks a lot of people in the balls) and it’s easy to lose interest. I found it even harder to make it to the end as Milligan depicts Black Beauty’s entire ...