Puckoon (Penguin Books)

"Puckoon", Spike Milligan's first novel bursts at the seams with superb comic characters involved in unbelievably likely troubles on the Irish border. It's 1924 and the Boundary Commission is deciding on the new line between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. With much pushing and shoving, the border finds it's way down the middle of Puckoon, dividing house from outhouse, man from wife, and pub chairs from bars. Something must be done! "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.