Synopsis

Murphy is Irish and poor. Even by the standards of the poorest of the poor in Ireland, Murphy is poor. Set sometime between the first and second World Wars, somewhere in Ireland and sometimes everywhere else besides - at one point Murphy is kidnapped by Irish aliens who take him in a spaceship to see St Patrick choose his National Lottery numbers - Murphy's story serves only to prove that the luck of the Irish is not bestowed upon all the sons of the nation.

Unable to hold down his job on a building site he turns to robbery but is discovered trapped inside a suit of armour, almost drowns when he falls down a wishing well and catches a particularly revolting form of bronchitis whilst on religious retreat in a particularly revolting form of monastery.

As you would expect, The Murphy is rude, irreverent and hugely funny Classic Miligan.

Amazon.co.uk Review

Shunning the conventions of plot, narrative and characterisation, Spike Milligan's first new novel for over a decade is an act of pure randomness. Subtitled "A Novel"--and that's less a description than a reminder--The Murphy certainly hints at storytelling, though that's as close as it gets.

The reality is a skittish, fantastical journey with more rambles than a hill walker on a cross-country jamboree. Milligan's anti-hero, Murphy, is an eejit who finds himself propelled into a surreal stupor after his wife opts to clear up his hangover with a turn of the frying pan. His ensuing recollections occasionally demonstrate a loose pattern, but by and large hang by the most arbitrary of threads.

At various points Murphy finds himself being hauled out of a wishing well by the local rugby team, only to be chucked back in for explaining that he fell while "invigorating" himself, abducted by aliens who remove his appendix in exchange for Guinness and displaying worrying necrophiliac tendencies as a hospital orderly. Like Flann O'Brien on speed, The Murphy is a catalogue of absurdities with little or no apparent direction.

The reader is left with the suspicion that they are stumbling through a series of episodes compiled at random and written on pure whim. As a showcase for Spike's lyrical playfulness The Murphy can be very funny--the humour is entirely joke-based, relying on linguistic inventiveness, rather than situation or circumstance;

"Me and me wife are going to Portugal on holiday", said O'Toole. "A place called Park des Roches. I'm lookin' forward to it." "Well now. It would be silly to look backwards to it", said Murphy. "How long will you be dere?"

"Der same as I am here, five foot eleven", said O'Toole.

The Murphy is full of loony linguistic tricks and joie-de-vivre though it's difficult to avoid the impression that the person enjoying himself most is the man who wrote it. Perhaps this is what happens when Spike "invigorates" himself --Gala Brand

From the Publisher

Spike Milligan's inimitable brand of humour is well-known to many who've read his poems, or his hilarious war memoirs, or the series of classics given the Spike treatment. But Spike is also a writer of comic novels of genius, and THE MURPHY is his first since THE LOONEY, published in 1987.

That it's a comic masterpiece almost goes without saying; but the kind of free-ranging ideas that Spike is only able to hint at in his other prose writing are given free rein here, and as a result THE MURPHY is more than a comic novel - it's also a unique and compelling window into the alternative world view that Spike has. A world view that, all too often, is more than matched by reality.

Reader Reviews

Lots of smiles, a few laughs

Spike Milligan is often hit and miss with his comedy. he's either so good he leaves you salivating for more or he's 'eh'. The Murphy falls in between. The book is about Mick Murphy, a drunken irishman, who after getting bonked on the head with a frying pan relives the highlights of his life: Love, Marriage, Health, poverty, etc etc.

It has the potential to be so much funnier, but for some reason, the comedy falls just a tad short. And the humor is a little too bathroom for this reader's taste. This being said, Spike Milligan is still one of the greatest humorists who ever lived, and even though THE MURPHY is far from his best work, it still warrants a reading; at the least you'll smile the whole way through.

Offbeat, comical and very good

Murphy is, as you've just read, very poor. So poor that he has to pawn off his jockstrap. So poor that he has to walk all the way back from his parents' house with his trousers stiff with milk. Very poor.

Milligan's war memoirs are better, but that does not detract from how good this book is. As a little light reading to laugh at, you can't go wrong, and it can't fail to put a smile on your face. Buy it, and you'll be very happy.

An Hilariously Comic Opus from the Colossos of Comedy

Spike's latest novel is an insane tour-de-force as he follows the anarchic, drunken ramblings of the eponymous Mick Murphy. Milligan is at his best in this new novel and shows that even in his 80's he is still just as creative, imaginative and, above all, funny as ever. Brilliant!