Author:Spike Milligan,Spike Milligan
Spike Milligan's legendary war memoirs are a hilarious and subversive first-hand account of the Second World War, as well as a fascinating portrait of the formative years of this towering comic genius, most famous as writer and star of The Goon Show. They have sold over 4.5 million copies.
Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall written and read by Spike Milligan.
'At Victoria station the R.T.O. gave me a travel warrant, a white feather and a picture of Hitler marked "This is your enemy". I searched every compartment, but he wasn't on the train . . .'
In this, the first of Spike Milligan's uproarious recollections of life in the army, our hero takes us from the outbreak of war in 1939 ('it must have been something we said'), through his attempts to avoid enlistment ('time for my appendicitus, I thought') and his gunner training in Bexhill ('There was one drawback. No ammunition') to the landing at Algiers in 1943 ('I closed my eyes and faced the sun. I fell down a hatchway').
Filled with bathos, pathos and gales of ribald laughter, this is a barely sane helping of military goonery and superlative Milliganese.
A classic . . . Tumult in the Clouds will continue to be read for many many years to come. It is an inspiring book
—— Len DeightonAn utterly compelling and intensely personal account of war in all its horror and excitement. A thrilling adventure story and an enthralling, compassionate witness to incredible heroism. I was gripped
—— John NicholWith practised skill Larson confronts the emotional pathos of wartime tragedy.
—— Iain Finlayson , THE TIMESVivid...Larson tells his story well.
—— Andrew Holgate , SUNDAY TIMESLarson's irresistibly pacey narrative moves between the various scenes of action, conjuring them up in vivid detail...the sources are remarkable...[his] detailed conversational endnotes are an added bonus.
—— Lucy Moore , LITERARY REVIEWA gripping piece of narrative history which moves almost with the same speed as Schwieger's torpedo.
—— NAVY NEWSLarson has an eye for haunting, unexploited detail...illuminating...suspenseful.
—— SCOTLAND ON SUNDAYThe master of popular non-fiction...a gripping account.
—— ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLYLarson's page turner brings the disaster to life.
—— EVENT magazineLarson's approach to history resembles a novelist's... a rattling read.
—— GuardianGripping...absorbing...however, it is when dealing with the aftermath of the tragedy, along with the attendant conspiracy theories, that Larson breaks new ground. I found it very hard to put down.
—— SOLDIER magazineLarson . . . writes non-fiction books that read like novels, real page-turners. This one is no exception . . . thoroughly engrossing
—— George R R MartinRiveting
—— John Kampfner , ObserverThought-provoking
—— Marcus Tanner , IndependentSuperb study
—— Nikolaus Wachsmann , Guardian[A] riveting account of how these ordinary Germans experienced and sustained the war
—— Nicholas Shakespeare , Daily TelegraphPlaces a flashlight inside the heads of “ordinary” Germans… Thought provoking
—— Maria Popova , Observerwell written and human account of a period of madness and how individuals sought to make sense of it
—— Simon Fowler , Who Do You Think You AreNicholas Stargardt spotlights the surprising twists and turns in the popular embrace of both the war and Nazi racial extremism. He explains—as few have—why the German people fought to the finish, whereas even the supposedly fanatical Japanese surrendered before an invasion of the homeland
—— Sheldon Garon, author of Molding Japanese Minds: The State in Everyday LifeAmbitious and absorbing new book.
—— Richard J. Evans , London Review of Books[A] revelatory book.
—— Simon Shaw , Mail on SundayI enjoyed this book immensely…This book fills a vast gap in our knowledge of history and I am glad to have read it.
—— Reg Seward , NudgeThis is a compelling book…It’s a story of endurance – of place as well as people – and ultimately, it’s uplifting.
—— Psychology, 'Our Friends at BBC 4'A brilliant way of coming at the history of Berlin and Germany itself, which shows how people coped with the vicissitudes of the regime.
—— Country and Town HouseHarding has recorded the fate of the house and its inhabitants, from the Weimar republic until reunification. This is German history in microcosm ... as exciting as a good historical novel.
—— Die WeltAn inspirational read: highly recommended.
—— Western Morning NewsA genuinely remarkable work of biographical innovation.
—— Stuart Kelly , TLS, Books of the YearI’d like to reread Ruth Scurr’s John Aubrey every Christmas for at least the next five years: I love being between its humane pages, which celebrate both scholarly companionship and deep feeling for the past
—— Alexandra Harris , GuardianRuth Scurr’s innovative take on biography has an immediacy that brings the 17th century alive
—— Penelope Lively , GuardianAnyone who has not read Ruth Scurr’s John Aubrey can have a splendid time reading it this summer. Scurr has invented an autobiography the great biographer never wrote, using his notes, letters, observations – and the result is gripping
—— AS Byatt , GuardianA triumph, capturing the landscape and the history of the time, and Aubrey’s cadence.
—— Daily TelegraphA brilliantly readable portrait in diary form. Idiosyncratic, playful and intensely curious, it is the life story Aubrey himself might have written.
—— Jane Shilling , Daily MailScurr knows her subject inside out.
—— Simon Shaw , Mail on SundayThe diligent Scurr has evidence to support everything… Learning about him is to learn more about his world than his modest personality, but Scurr helps us feel his pain at the iconoclasm and destruction wrought by the Puritans without resorting to overwrought language.
—— Nicholas Lezard , GuardianAcclaimed and ingeniously conceived semi-fictionalised autobiography… Scurr’s greatest achievement is to bring both Aubrey and his world alive in detail that feels simultaneously otherworldly and a mirror of our own age… It’s hard to think of a biographical work in recent years that has been so bold and so wholly successful.
—— Alexander Larman , Observer