"Rommel? Gunner Who?: A Confrontation in the Desert" is volume two of Spike Milligan's outrageous, hilarious, legendary War Memoirs. 'Keep talking, Milligan. I think I can get you out on Mental Grounds.
"That's how I got in, sir. "Didn't we all.' The second volume of Spike Milligan's legendary recollections of life as a gunner in World War Two sees our hero into battle in North Africa - eventually.
First, there is important preparation to be done: extensive periods of loitering ('We had been standing by vehicles for an hour and nothing had happened, but it happened frequently'), psychological toughening ('If a man dies when you hang him, keep hanging him until he gets used to it') and living dangerously ('no underwear!'). At last the battle for Tunis is upon them...
"Desperately funny, vivid, vulgar". ("Sunday Times").
"Milligan is the Great God to all of us". (John Cleese).
"The Godfather of Alternative Comedy". (Eddie Izzard).
"That absolutely glorious way of looking at things differently. A great man". (Stephen Fry).
Spike Milligan was one of the greatest and most influential comedians of the twentieth century. Born in India in 1918, he served in the Royal Artillery during WWII in North Africa and Italy. At the end of the war, he forged a career as a jazz musician, sketch-show writer and performer, before joining forces with Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe to form the legendary "Goon Show".
Until his death in 2002, he had success as on stage and screen and as the author of over eighty books of fiction, memoir, poetry, plays, cartoons and children's stories.
