Synopsis

This unique anthology of Spike's poems and stories for children presents his classic children's books in a way they have never been seen before.

The large format gives ample scope to make the most of Spike's own illustrations, lovingly coloured specially for this book. The anthology comprises Silly Verse For Kids (1959), The Bald Twit Lion (1968), A Book of Milliganimals (1968). Unspun Socks From A Chicken's Laundry (1981), Sir Nobonk and the Terrible, Awful, Dreadful, naughty, Nasty Dragon (1982) and Startling Verse For All The Family (1987).

Spike does not regard children as small grown-ups, but as an entirely different species who live in a secret, magical world which very few adults understand. His poems were inspired by listening to his own children, and subsequently his grandchildren, and marvelling at the way they could invent new words or incorporate sound effects into their everyday language.

In 'borrowing' their language, Spike has created a range of poems and stories which are a delight to read to younger children, for older children to read themselves, or for grown-ups recapture some of the magic.

Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review

Help your children learn Milliganese with A Child's Treasury of Milligan, a classic collection of daft short stories and nonsense rhymes from the king of Downright Silliness

This stunning anthology of Milligan's poems and stories for children comprises his classic books Unspun Socks for A Chicken's Laundry, A Book of Milliganimals, Silly Verse for Kidsand much more.

A great book for sharing and reading aloud (once your child gets hold of one of the remarkably silly and occasionally quite naughty verses, there'll be no stopping them...)it would also appeal to more reluctant readers who may well be persuaded by the silliness of it all, and enjoy reading it alone in short bursts.

Grown-ups beware: if you are a fully fledged Milligan fan you may well find this book irresistible. Age 7 and over

Good Housekeeping

'A wonderful collection of Spike's stories and poetry for children. Some of them are funny, some of them downright strange, but they're all inventive, and imaginative.' --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Books Magazine

'Spike's illustrated autobiography will delight his many fans. Happily, the Family Album is untrammeled Milligan. The temptation to be sensible is resisted.' --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the DooYoo website

A Children's Treasury of Milligan

the death of spike milligan has been announced today, the 27th. february 2002. this is the death of a man i whose humour i have only appreciated in these later years.

his wit was, too often, too sharp. (sharp enough to cut himself my grandmother would have said.) today, there were on the today's news, a couple of questions asked of him in recent interviews. his ripostes are in themselves worthy of remembering.

he was asked, for what he would like to be remembered. "just remembered" was his answer. even better, another question asked was, was he afraid of dying? "no, as long as i'm not there", was his answer.

i hope he wasn't!



"there are holes in the sky where the rain gets in,
but they're every so small that's why rain is thin."

i was sitting at my desk, at work, when in came the 'book people'. there cannot be many of us who aren't aware of them. anyway, there on the top was a book called 'a children' treasury of milligan'. (now, i'm not a particular fan of this man. i have seen him on 'chat shows' and find his humour often bitter and cruel). nevertheless i picked up this book, which was first published in 1999 by virgin publishing limited, and started to flick through.

the quote above, about the rain, is word for word from the first book within this treasury, silly verse for kids. this book of verse was first published in 1959. in the forward it states that most of the poems were inspired by listening to his own children and marvelling at the way they could invent new words or incorporate sound effects in their everyday speech. he was well qualified, in this respect, he married june marlow when he was 34 years old in 1952, and by 1956 they had three children, laura, sean and sile

on the ning nang nong
where the cows go bong!
and the monkeys all say boo!
there's a nong nang ning
where the trees go Ping!
And the tea pots Jibber Jabber Joo.
On the Nong Ning Nang
All the mice go Clang!
And you just can't catch 'em when they do!
So it's Ning Nang Nong!
Cows go Bong!
Nong Nang Ning!
Trees go Ping!
Nong Ning Nang!
The mice go Clang!
What a noisy place to belong,
Is the Ning Nang Ning Nang Nong!

The Ning Nang Nong is also from the Silly Verse for Kids and in 1998 it was voted the Nation's Favourite Comic Poem. To my absolute surprise my 'little people' were well aware of this verse and much of his other work. It appears he is on the school reading list. My little girls are being educated in Berkshire and my little man is being educated in Wiltshire so it cannot be just a local thing.

Before I left this first book I tried to find my favourite verse. It was VERY difficult, but I ended up with this: -

Down the stream the swans all glide:
It's quite the cheapest way to ride.
Their legs get wet, their tummies wetter:
I think after all the bus is better.

Or is it this? : -

I'm not frightened of Pussy Cats
They only eat up mice and rats,
But a Hippopotamus
Could eat the Lotofus!

Spike Milligan does not regard children as small adults, but as an entirely different species. They live in a secret, magical world that very few adults can understand. For over four decades he has peeped into this special place and delighted 'children' of all ages with his poems and stories. Being a grandmother one can spend much time in this place. I think it a complement when one of the small ones said, "You aren't grown up like Mummy and Daddy, are you Grandma?"!!

This gentle, childlike humour is much removed from the sharp and somewhat bitter humour that uncover his later depression, but I digress. Spike Milligan was born Terence Alan Milligan on the 16th April 1918 in Ahmed Nagar, India. He was the son of an Army Officer posted to the Empire, in other words an 'Army Brat'. He, himself, fought in the Second World War serving in the Royal Artillery

In the early 1950's he joined forces with three other war weary, would be comics. These are names, which I am sure even the youngest reader will recognise, Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and possibly the less well known, Michael Bentine. They created a radio series for the British Broadcasting Corporation, (from now on the BBC!!). Although they wanted to call this series 'The Goon Show' the BBC thought that 'The Crazy People' would be better. This show might have been called the forerunner of the Monty Python type sketches. However a new producer brought in a change of format and a 'new' name, 'The Goon Show'.

At first Michael Bentine and Spike Milligan shared the writing of the scripts but they fell out leaving the latter as the creative core of 'The Goons'. Of course it was the performing genius of them all which created such a masterpiece but because it relied so heavily on rude sounds, (well they weren't ALL rude), and silly but very clever voices 'The Goons' did not transfer with grace to the screen. The last of these masterpieces was broadcast on the 28th January 1960.

This was the end of an era. It was the end of his first marriage as well.

Spike Milligan went on to write and star in the TV sketch series Q and published much written material, which included his version of 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' as well as his famous war memoirs which begin with the words, "Hitler, my part in his downfall". But his next published work of this anthology is 'A Book of Milliganimals'. It comprised mainly of verse about real and pretend animals. This work was published in 1968.

A very rash young lady pig
(They say she was a smasher)
Suddenly ran
Under a van
Now she's a gammon rasher.

OR

Bunga-louie lee!
Said the monkey to the flea,
It wasn?t much to say but-
It passed the time away.

(Bunga-louie-lee was a word invented by Sile when popping a hand puppet around his bedroom door when she was about seven.)


In 1968 he also published an absolutely fabulous, (an adjective used correctly for once, I believe), nonsense story called 'The Bald Twit Lion'.The illustrations to this little story are marvellous. The illustrations throughout this whole work are themselves an entertainment. Spike Milligan's original illustrations were coloured by Ron Callow at Design 23, who designed this book.

It is, as the title suggests, a story of a rather stupid lion, which roared so loudly using so much force that his hair fell out. It starts: -

Once, twice and thrice upon a time there lived a jungle. It started at the bottom and went upwards till it reached the monkeys, who had been waiting for the trees to reach them, and as soon as it did the monkeys invented climbing down. Most trees were made of wood, and so were the rest. Trees never spoke, not even to each other, so they never said much (actually one tree did once say "much" but nobody believed him); they never said 'fish' either, not even on Fridays. It was a really good Jungle: great scarlet lilies, yellow irises, thousands of grasses all grew very happily, and this Jungle was always on time. Some people are always late, like King George V. But not this Jungle.

This is the first paragraph of several nonsensical pages about this 'Bald Twit Lion'. But in case you were worried it has a happy ending: -

"Good" said God. "Close your eyes and say Miggle Moggle Cake".
Lion did. When he opened his eyes God had gone back home. But Lion now had a lovely lovely mane of beautiful black hair, and he was so happy he married a Roman Catholic giraffe and lived happily ever after until the next day.

Ouch!! Like most of his writings this shows such an innocent childlike sense of the ridiculous mixed with so much cynicism.

Spike had married again in 1962, a lady called Patricia (Paddy) Ridgeway, and they had one child, June, in 1964. Although their marriage did not actually end until 1976 it had become something of a farce. Spike had two other children born during 1975. The first, a daughter called Romany, was borne by a Canadian journalist and the second, a son called James was born after an affair with one Margaret Maughan.

The fourth book included in this tome is called 'Unspun Socks From a Children's Laundry'. This book was published in 1981. In the author's note he says that the poems are inspired by children. When listening to his children he had noted the mispronunciations, slips of the tongue, misunderstood words and even self-invented words. Appreciating children's love of vocal exclamation he says he included a few bits of onomatopoeia. (Don't you just think that THAT is one of the best words in our language, ONOMATOPOEIA?)

Many of the little poems in this section were thought of while he was on his travels, Australia, Tasmania, and Hong Kong to name just some of the places. Again in this section there are many drawings, which are works of art in themselves. Only familiar with this man's zany television and film appearances I certainly underestimated his
Genius. Shall I give just a little flavour with a couple of the shorter examples: -

Nelly Ninnis by June and her dad on the way back from the Natural History Museum on the 15th October 1977.

There was a young girl called Nelly
Who had a nylon belly
The skin was so thin
We could all see in
It was full of Custard and Jelly

And from Perth in March 1980

The kangaroo of Australia
Lives on the burning plain,
He keeps on leaping in the air
'Cos it's hot when he lands again.

These are just simple 'sound' rhymes but some of the longer verses in this section are very clever and show so much insight into what makes innocent humour.

The penultimate book was printed in 1982. In this same year he married his third wife Shelagh Sinclair. This part has the grand title of 'Sir Nobonk and the terrible, awful, dreadful, naughty, nasty dragon'. This is a little story that must be read to be appreciated. Although it is quite suitable and very amusing for children there is in this piece a subtle humour, which goes over their heads.

It starts thus, "One thousand years ago in the red-earthed land of Cornwall, was the Kingdom of Rotten-Custard ruled over by King Big-Twytt" Sir Nobonk, a pretty useless knight who got into many scrapes on his travels, wanted a licence to kill dragons. The king thought that this was very dangerous and although he eventually agreed to give this knight a licence he said that it must be on his own head.

Sir Nobonk goes off with the licence firmly strapped to the top of his head riding his snow-white charger called Daz .. And this noble knight's adventures continue in this vein.


The last part of this literary collection was first published in 1987 and it is entitled 'Startling Verse for all the Family'. I will quote a little nonsense ditty first: -

My granddad's old
And lost his hair
And that's why flies
Are landing there.

The next one, although quite suitable for all little children displays a definite political tone: -

Croca croca crocodile
With a politician's smile
Showing all your massive teeth,
Just like Edward Heath.
I bet my life if you could catch her
You could eat up Mrs Thatcher.
Perhaps you'd eat our other menace
Mrs Thatcher's husband Denis.
For that Neil Kinnock would agree
To offer you the OBE.

Although this is now a little dated it is still appropriate to some of us!

My journey through this book and the research I have done show me a man I had not realised was there. This is a man who surely deserved the CBE awarded to him in 1992. A man who has been such an accomplished musician, actor, poet, scriptwriter and novelist in a career that has spanned more than fifty years also deserved the Lifetime Achievement Award he received at the British Comedy Awards in 1994.

In the 2000/2001 honours list the Queen knighted him. Technically his Irish citizenship forbids him from using this title but he is now known by most as Sir Spike Milligan. Prince Charles tried to persuade him to take the oath of loyalty and become a British subject again, pointing out that he had to do it as Prince of Wales. Spike, never one to show deference, quipped that it had been different for him because he had to pledge allegiance to his mum as she provided him with bed and board.

My very last quote comes from 'Startling Verse for all the Family'. I think with my very juvenile sense of humour my favourite MUST be the same as that of my little ones?

Monkey, monkey, monkey,
Sitting in a tree,
Pulling funny faces-
Please pull one for me.
Pull one for my daddy,
Pull one for my mum.
But when it comes to teacher
Turn round and show her yer bum.