Product Description

Spike Milligan was one of our best-loved comics as well as one of our most original. In this first major assessment of Spike's life and career, the highly respected biographer Humphrey Carpenter has – through copious research and access to many of those closest to the great man – unearthed a character who could be as difficult and contradictory as he was generous and talented.

The creator of The Goons was to influence a whole generation of comics, yet was never to feel fully valued. His periods of depression were matched by periods of high creativity – there were poems, novels, volumes of biography, as well as TV series and a one-man show as Spike searched for his best means of expression. There was also, as revealed here, his inveterate womanising. Married three times and with four children to whom he was devoted, two illegitimate children were to remain barely acknowledged.

Detailing both his private and professional
life, Humphrey Carpenter gives us the most revealing portrait yet of this highly complex genius. (20040504)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #265664 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05-24
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Humphrey Carpenter's Spike Milligan: The Biography is a brilliantly incisive journey into the life and mind of this mentally tormented comedy genius, and no subsequent book is likely to offer such a striking picture of a unique entertainment life. But one would expect no less from Carpenter, whose biographies of such figures as the composer Britten and the playwright Dennis Potter quickly established themselves as definitive.

Spike Milligan changed the face of British comedy--and many later comedians (notably the Monty Python team) would constantly reiterate their debt to him--and yet he died a bitter man, feeling neglected by the BBC (for which he had done such creative work) and seemingly unable to hear the voices of the younger comedians who sang his praises. For over 50 years, in every conceivable medium, Spike's quirky surrealistic humour made him among the best-loved of comedy talents in this country--and yet (it was remarked) he was best loved by those who didn't actually know him. His prickliness was legendary, and his career dissatisfaction, combined with the mental problems he suffered for most of his adult life, made it impossible for him to accept his considerable status in his field.

Drawing on Spike's own writing, Carpenter presents a picture of a fascinating and conflicted man. From his unsettling move as a child from India to a grey and cheerless England, Spike struggled with manic depression while still creating the much-loved Goon Show (with the equally troubled Peter Sellers). That period is faultlessly recreated here, along with Spike's acrimonious battles with his BBC bosses. Revealing new material tells us of the love affairs he conducted during his three marriages, and the children who were the results of those liaisons--these sections are among the most telling in painting a picture of a complex man. Whether you're interested in the history of British comedy or simply want to learn more about a fascinating writer and performer, you'll find Carpenter's biography riveting stuff. --Barry Forshaw

The Sunday Times
'Eminently readable portrait of a selfish, complex man'

Review
'Carpenter gets to the heart of the gloomy monster.' (Sunday Herald 20040504)

'Carpenter's Milligan biography has some great comic riffs ...(this) very readable biography shows him at his most flawed and most human.' (Guardian 20040504)

'This biography delves deep behind the comic genius' many masks, exposing a depressed, self-centred and fascinating individual.' (OK! 20040504)

'In this definitive biography, Humphrey Carpenter demonstrates how Milligan was his own worst enemy... The beauty of Carpenter's biography is that this man of contradictions is laid before us in all his crazy glory.' (Sunday Express )

'Carpenter has made a very good job, scholarly and entertaining, of turning the adventures of one of Britain's strangest ever talents into a reliable narrative.' (Word )

'This experienced and genial biographer settles down into his familiar, businesslike style, unafraid of addressing the less savoury aspects of his subject.' (Observer )

'Takes us at a cracking pace through Milligan's war service, the Goon Show years, his literary career, and his attempts, largely unsuccessful, to repeat the mass appeal of The Goons ... It is all part of a complex personality that Carpenter has done well to grapple into a readable biography.' (The Sunday Times )

'as close a likeness as you will get.' (Spectator )

'Chronicles all Spike's antisocial and depressive behaviour with tremendous diligence.' (Mail on Sunday )

'A vivid picture of life at the Beeb when Spike was at his creative acme. Carpenter is good at describing the chemistry and backstage tension of The Goons, and the extracts from shows are well-chosen ... Carpenter's elegant scissors-and-paste job will probably become the new standard text.' (Evening Standard )

'Humphrey Carpenter's chatty yet perceptive biography charts the fascinating ebb and flow between the poles of [Spike's] personality ... Carpenter soberly charts Spike's indiscretions without salaciousness or sycophancy.' (Independent )

' a fascinating portrait' (The Times Literary Supplement )

Customer Reviews

Good start....
This bio started well enough, but then I though that it faded. After the first few chapters, after the war lets say, the book turns into a presentation of facts, dates & times, reviews and quotes. Another thing that bothered me, is that the biographer kept quoting from Beehan's biography of Mr. Milligan. From this, I got the impression that I should have read Beehan's biography! The author apparently only met with two people involved in Spike's life for this book. The rest of his research seems to come for the archives (newspapers, memos in the BBC, etc).

Also, the author does not seem to like or have any sympathy for Spike Milligan at all. Everything that Spike has said is treated as rubbish unless there is some other evidence to back it up.

All in all, this book made me interested in Spike Milligan but I would have rather read one of Spike's own books.

Spike is an artist, not a saint
May I first declare that I did enjoy this book and my enthusiasm for Spike Milligan remained undimmed at the end of it. However at times I felt this was despite the best efforts of serial biographer Humphrey Carpenter. Its apparent something bugged him while he was working on this. In the early few chapters he is grasping at Spike-like humour and invention in the text, but soon this gives way to carping at Milligans very existence. It is well understand that Spike was a difficult man and we would need to rely on a biography rather than Spikes volumous autobiographical writing to get close to this, but there is a sense that Carpenter has gone too far the other way and given far too much space and credence to Spikes detractors and serially attempts to discredit Spikes own version of events without actually getting to the bottom of his motivation. While I am grateful to him for evoking Spikes life in this more multi-dimensional way, I do hope that he revisits it for the paperback issue and edits some of the more sloppy passages. The footnote on page 217 is a good example of these unjustified slights.

Spike is spiked !
Humphrey Carpenter is a very good biographer indeed and I have enjoyed his biographies of Benjamin Britten, Denis Potter and others. I was surprised that he decided to choose Spike Milligan as a subject and a bit worried when he started the book with a sort of mock Goon show script. However the book settled down into a thorough and readable account of the life of this very strange man. Carpenter’s distaste for his subject grows as the biography progresses and by the end he clearly can’t stand the man. The reader is likely to feel the same as however much we may admire Milligan’s talent, as an individual he was very flawed indeed. To his credit Carpenter ducks none of the awkward facts about his subject’s life and he paints a candid (but not sensationalist) picture of Spike’s dis-functionality. Less good (I think) is his attempt to unravel Milligan’s talent. Spike was a one-off and quite why he developed as he did as an artist is maybe just too difficult to explain. At the end of the book I retained my admiration for much of Spike Milligan’s work. All in all a must have!!