George Orwell and Spike Milligan – Outsiders and Insiders of the British Empire
George Orwell and Spike Milligan – Outsiders and Insiders of the British Empire

Summary/Abstract: What if the founding father of British radio comedy and the famous broadcaster and author of dystopian social criticism were brought together within one analysis? An aspect rarely considered when looking into the oeuvre of Spike Milligan is the sharp criticism of colonial rule present in his war memoirs. In a letter to his friend and fellow-humourist-to-be, Harry Secombe, there is a short, intriguing part that can be dated circa early 1943 which bears the designation: „S. S: Arcadia, Near Aden” and constitutes the first part of a series of five letters, all reminiscences about the North African coast. More often discussed and widely known is George Orwell’s depiction of colonialism. A most thought-provoking exemplar of it being ‘Marrakech’, an essay first published in a collection entitled New Writing (1939). The correspondence and the short essay possess similar characteristics, so much so that their comparison seems to be a fertile ground for analysis. In my paper, I will venture to indicate that a colonial sensitivity similar in origin yet different in expression lies in the two writings whose authors happened to be both insider-born and outsider-bred subjects of the British Empire.

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