Box 18 was what Spike labelled the file he popped all sorts of odds and ends into, ideas to be worked on at a later date. It contained letters, drawings, scribblings, stories and discarded scripts, plus some diary entries and is produced here in loving memory of an extraordinary man.
The two previous anthologies, 'The Essential Spike Milligan' and 'The Compulsive Spike Milligan', brought together the very best of his stories, cartoons, poems and correspondence, and reminded his fans how deserved his reputation was as a wildly inventive and original comedian.
‘The Unpublished Spike Milligan’ – chosen and edited by Norma Farnes, Milligan's manager, biographer and close friend – is yet more essential and compulsive than these first two collections. It consists of the contents of 'Box 18', a file into which the highly prolific Spike would put his writing and drawings as they came to him, but which never came to be published. The book also draws on previously unseen diaries and letters. As both an original anthology and a personal legacy from a long-gone era, this is absolutely unmissable.
Spike Milligan was born in India in 1918 and his career as a musician, actor, poet, scriptwriter and novelist spans over fifty years. His first book was published in 1959, after which he published many volumes of poetry, scripts, novels, letters and general humour.
In 1992 Spike was awarded the CBE for his work as an entertainer, broadcaster and writer and in 1994 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the British Comedy Awards, Spike Milligan, one of Britain's most respected performers, died on 27 February 2002 at his family home in Sussex.
