Peace Work

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What to expect

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of Peace work, written and read by Spike Milligan.

'I had not informed my parents of my return, I wanted it to be a lovely surprise; it was, for me, they were away ...'

The seventh and last volume of Spike Milligan's memoirs sees our hero returning from war and Italy ... but to what? Aside from shooting large, inaccurate guns at Germans, all he has done for five long years is blow a trumpet, tell rude jokes and write and perform sketches for the entertainment of bored and murderous soldiers - who on earth is going to pay a civilian to do more of that? From the giddy heights of Hackney Empire to a Zurich Freak Show and beyond, Spike makes his way through the backwaters of showbiz, first as band musician then as one-man wild-act and eventually in the company of a group of like-minded comedians called Harry Secombe, Michael Bentine and Peter Sellers. They decide to call themselves The Goons...

Critics Review

  • 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

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