Milligan's Meaning of Life

The legendary comic's hilarious reflections on his life - and life in general- a glorious celebration and a perfect summer readWith 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.

“Milligan is the Great God to all of us”

-- John Cleese
The Godfather of Alternative Comedy -- Eddie Izzard
My father had a profound influence on me. He was a lunatic. -- Spike Milligan

Norma Farnes was Spike Milligan's agent, manager, mother confessor and friend for thirty-six years. Her books include Spike- An Intimate Memoir and Memories of Milligan. She edited Box 18- The Unpublished Spike Milligan and The Compulsive Spike Milligan to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Spike's first book Silly Verse for Kids published in 1959. Norma compiled a selection of his children's poems and stories in The Magical World of Milligan. She lives with her partner in London and Yorkshire.

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