Puckoon (1963)

<p><em>“Caw!” said the crow. “Balls!” said the Milligan.</em></p><p><br></p><p>This week, we look at a book that Spike Milligan claimed took either five years - or ten years and fifteen secretaries - to write, and which “damn nearly drove me mad.” But just how much of Spike himself and his life bled into the narrative? And how did a marriage proposal expedite its completion? </p><p><br></p><p><em>Puckoon</em> was, for a long time, Spike’s only novel, and it proved both a commercial and critical success. Set in the fictional Irish village of Puckoon, a casually drawn border line places graves, a pub, and even church grounds in British territory. From this spring comic scenarios involving two ragged-arsed IRA men attempting to smuggle explosives past a Customs post in a coffin, the digging up of the late Dan Doonan, and an escaped panther on the prowl.</p><p><br></p><p>And what of the cast of characters? We meet the hapless Dan Milligan and his “poorly written” legs; the financially desperate Father Rudden; Murphy with the unfeasibly hairy eyebrows; the regulars of <em>The Holy Drinker</em> pub; and the - slightly problematic - Constable Lee Ah Pong.</p><p><br></p><p>We discuss Spike’s complex relationship with Ireland, despite having spent very little time there, and ask whether <em>Puckoon</em> is a satire on partition, bureaucracy, religion, marriage… or simply the human condition itself. There’s also a look at the novel’s darker undercurrents, including the heartbreaking story of Farmer O’Mara and sequences Spike later regretted destroying. </p><p><br></p><p>It’s rather like <em>The Goon Show</em> in novel form, with hints of Joyce, Flann O’Brien, and even Hollywood screwball comedy.</p><p><br></p><p>Join Tyler and voice actor/podcaster David Wills as they try to decide where <em>Puckoon</em> sits among the pantheon of great comic novels in English.</p>