By turns amusing, laugh-out-loud hilarious and odd, this is definitely an unusual assortment of writings from the pen of Mr. Milligan: poems, drawings, letters, fairy tales and short stories. Your enjoyment of this collection will depend on your tolerance for absurd humour. For me, what I like best about Milligan's work is his war memoirs, so my favourite pieces in this collection were the ones that most closely resembled them (the letters to Harry Secombe, for instance). I also really enjoyed the fairy tales that closed out the collection and wanted to march out immediately and read them to my friends' children. The rest of the collection was a bit hit or miss for me. My favourite of the poems was "So Fair is She", and the story "The Violin" reminded me of Roald Dahl. Overall the feel is similar to John Lennon's, with fewer instances of inventive spelling and grammar.

If you're just starting out with Milligan's work, I would suggest trying one of his war memoirs (my favourite is Volume 2, "Rommel? Gunner Who?") or listening to a couple of episodes of The Goon Show (via BBC Radio 4 Extra). Then try this collection and see what tickles your fancy. ( )