Spike's short novel is very funny, well written and just pure entertainment. The story is good and as daft as you would expect from spike. Great fun.

This is a laugh out loud read. Classic Milligan with all the comedy he will always be remembered for. A must buy book for anyone who is a goon show fan

A really brilliant book

Without any doubt on my part, I can say this is the funniest book I've ever read in the 60+ years I've been able to read! Whilst very occasionally lapsing into what can only be described as 'Milliganese', it blends superbly-written comic characters with the most fantastic yet plausible plot and sub-plots. I recommended it to a friend who confided to me that he read it for only fifteen minutes a day. When asked why he limited his reading he replied that, after fifteen minutes, his sides were aching so much from laughing he had to stop. It's that kind of book, the kind you read again and again, and always find something new to tickle your funny bone. Humour aside, there are moments of genuine pathos, the character O'Mara being a prime example. If you think Milligan couldn't write descriptive prose, think again. At times when he turns to that, it flows from his pen in a way that rivals the best examples of the craft. Not as PC as we now expect from the more modern authors - it was, after all, written in the early sixties - it has just the one fault... it is too short. No, two faults... you can't read it in public, say, on a train, as people will be disturbed by your snickering and belly laughs!

I bought this as it was mentioned in the notes of a copy of Flann O'Brien's "The Third Policeman " as a work of possible interest to those who enjoy that novel. For me, there is simply no comparison. O'Brien's masterpiece is subtle and sophisticated, whilst also being brilliantly funny. "Puckoon", on the other hand, is more of the lowest common denominator variety of humour. It's also horribly outdated, and politically incorrect in the extreme (jokes about race, and about terrorist organisations, are simply not funny). There is evidence enough here to show that Spike Milligan was an intelligent and educated person, but as a novel, I'm afraid this is an unsophisticated, and frankly silly, mess.