Tag: Silly

Spike Milligan – A Celebration | Review

Title: A Celebration

Author: Spike Milligan

Type: Poetry/Fiction

Page Count: 160

Rating: 3.75/5

This book was pretty cool because it covered quite a wide variety of Spike Milligan’s career, including little snippets of TV and radio shows, doodles and drawings and bits and bobs of poetry. Milligan was also a huge influence on a whole range of different people, from John Lennon to Monty Python, who admittedly isn’t actually a person.

It’s essentially almost a best of book, with highlights from a bunch of Milligan’s different works, as well as reminiscences from people like Dennis Norden and Jim Dale. That in itself makes it an interesting read, but the humour itself is spot on as well. It’s even missing most of the casual racism that eked its way into Milligan’s stuff, which is a bonus for me with my hella woke modern sensibilities.

Would I recommend it? Yes, if you like silly humour and stuff.

Learn more about A Celebration.


Tony Hawks – One Hit Wonderland | Review

Title: One Hit Wonderland

Author: Tony Hawks

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count: 310

Rating: 4/5

I picked this one up after seeing it in a charity shop and reading and enjoying Round Ireland with a Fridge. Hawks has a quirky sense of humour, but it’s one of the rare instances where someone’s sense of humour comes across really well in the written page and where it doesn’t annoy me.

Here, we basically follow what happens when Hawks decides to head abroad to try to record a follow up to a one hit wonder that he had before I was even born. He meets a colourful supporting cast of characters along the way of course, and overall we end up with a fun little book that you can whizz through in a couple of days.

I actually read this while everyone was locked down because of Coronavirus, and it was the perfect read for that because it helped to take my mind away to a time where the world wasn’t quite in the state that it’s in today. It’s weird, I haven’t seen anyone I know for a week or so, and so just the very idea of going outside and spending time with people feels like something I did half a year away.

All in all then, I was pretty happy with this book and I still plan to eventually read everything that Hawks has published. The list is disappointingly short, and he must be about due something by now, but perhaps he’s no longer taking silly bets and going off on crazy madcap adventures. I don’t know, I haven’t looked him up.

Would I recommend this one? Definitely, and it’s actually one of those where I think you’ll find something no matter what kind of stuff you normally read. It’s just loads of fun.

Learn more about One Hit Wonderland.