Spike Milligan

Terence Alan Milligan otherwise known as Spike Milligan was an Irish-English actor, playwright, poet, musician, and writer, best known for the series of comical autobiographical works documenting his experiences as a soldier in the WWII British Army, children’s poetry and the highly popular TV strip, The Goon Show. Born of an English mother and an Irish father, he spent most of childhood in India the country of his birth, before immigrating to the UK later in life. He adopted the nickname of Spike after hearing the Spike Jones and his City Slickers band playing on Radio Luxembourg.

The best place to start is the War (and Peace) Memoirs series, the earliest of Spike Milligan's multi-book series: it opens with Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall (1971) and runs to 9 books across 1971–1995, ending with Gunner Milligan, 954024 (1995). Spike Milligan's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

Spike Milligan has 98 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1959 and 2017. 41 of them belong to 5 named series — the largest being the According to Spike Milligan series with 10 books — and 57 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Spike Milligan's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are War (and Peace) Memoirs (1971–1995, 9 books), The Goon Show (1972–2017, 10 books) and William McGonagall (1975–1992, 4 books), plus 2 more.

This guide splits Spike Milligan's 98 books into 5 named series and 57 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: According to Spike Milligan (10 books, 1993–2002); The Goon Show (10 books, 1972–2017); War (and Peace) Memoirs (9 books, 1971–1995); The Nation's Favourite Poems (8 books, 1996–2004); William McGonagall (4 books, 1975–1992).