Buried in Winchelsea, East Sussex is one of the worlds greatest comics. None other than the great Spike Milligan. Born in India the son of a soldier he lived in South London & served in the Royal Artillery during World War Two, meeting up with the likes of Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe, post war the Goons were formed and the rest as they is history his manic type of comedy being the inspiration for the likes of Monty Python.
I loved his war memoirs ( a trilogy in seven parts!) and of course things like the 'Q' programmes, who can forget the Pakistani darlek, the idiot scout troop and the rest.
When I was at school part of my English Language CSE course was a book study. I chose Milligans classic 'Puckoon.' There was various things we had to do, review the book, write an alternative ending and find out as much as you can about the author. I managed to get in touch with Spike via Penguin Books and to my sheer delight received a personal letter from the man himself signing off with 'Sincerely Spike.' I also got wealth of information about him which helped me greatly to obtain my Grade 2 CSE !!
As he had Irish ancestry & I think Irish citizenship some of his gravestone is written in Gaelic, one sentence reading 'I told you I was ill.'
Leave 'em laughing Spike! There'll never be another!
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