Roger McGough

‘The patron saint of poetry’ – Carol Ann Duffy

For sixty years, Roger McGough has thrilled and delighted generations of readers with his irreverent, intimate and ever-original poetry. The Collected Poems presents the definitive selection of his very best work, from the Mersey-soaked sound of his quintessential Sixties start, through to tender meditations on fatherhood and family, and on to political sendups, pandemic playfulness and brilliant new writing. Here, then, is an unmatched store of warmth, wisdom and feeling from Britain’s most beloved poet.

‘McGough has done for poetry what champagne does for weddings’ – Time Out

‘This is not the time for adultery.
Your lover will fail to be impressed,
not so much by the face mask
and stale musk of sanitizing gel,
but your flouting of the rules.’

At once funny and moving, Safety in Numbers is the new collection from the nation’s favourite poet. Traversing new yet timeless terrain with his signature wit and intimacy, Roger McGough brings to life the very strangeness of our times

From lost tongues and violins to rising oceans, from adulterers in lockdown to ghosts in line, we may live in dark times and yet find ourselves laughing. From surprising angles and with unexpected voices, McGough, ‘a trickster you can trust’, reveals the telling moments of our lives.
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PRAISE FOR ROGER MCGOUGH

‘A witty and ingenious chronicler of British life with a deftness and agility that is hard to beat’ Poetry Society

‘The patron saint of poetry’ Carol Ann Duffy

‘McGough has done for poetry what champagne does for weddings’ Time Out

For more than fifty years, Roger McGough has entranced generations of readers with poetry which is at once playful and poignant, intimate and ambitious in its scope. Joinedupwriting delivers on all the wry observation, warmth and subtle heartache that readers have come to expect from his collections.

From forgotten friendships to the idiosyncrasies of family life, to the trauma of war right through to contemporary global politics – these poems explore the human experience in all its shades of light and dark, but always with McGough’s signature wit, irreverence and vivacity. This is the nation’s favourite poet at his very finest.

‘The patron saint of poetry’ Carol Ann Duffy

It Never Rains by Roger McGough – an expanded edition of comic verse and free line drawings, from the nation’s favourite poet.

‘Oxford Blues’ is one of the many new poems in this expanded and revised edition of The State of Poetry, Roger McGough’s book of short humorous verse which was published in 2005 as part of Penguin’s 70s series celebrating its 70th anniversary. From a poem commissioned to commemorate Dylan Thomas in just 140 characters, which unfortunately comes to an end mid-word, to a pre-emptive erratum notice, these poems show McGough at his inventive, hilarious best – and there are also new line drawings by the author offered at no extra cost.

Roger McGough’s new book of poems shows him writing as fluently and inventively as ever. There may be a stronger strain of melancholy than before (the death of a regular in the local pub; the news that a daughter might be moving abroad), as well as a distinct sense of menace, small but insistent, which inhabits many of the poems. But there is plenty of McGough’s characteristic wit and wordplay too, including a scintillating series of haiku inspired by a London tube strike and a striking reworking of his famous 1960s poem ‘Let Me Die a Youngman’s Death’, this time entitled ‘Not For Me a Youngman’s Death’. Who but McGough would characterize the butcher’s window as ‘the friendly face of the abattoir’, or imagine the almost limitless ways in which we might go to bed?

A new book of poems by Roger McGough is always an event. Published just ahead of his 75th birthday, As Far As I Know is truly cause for celebration.

First published in 1967, The Mersey Sound has sold over half a million copies, making it the bestselling poetry anthology of all time.

Collected for the first time in one volume, McGough`s poems remain as potent as they ever were.

Republished Penguin 2017

Poems to make you smile! Critically acclaimed poet Roger McGough has drawn together a fantastic collection of upbeat poems to bring happiness into your day with this uplifting collection Happy Poems.

He reminds us that happiness can be found all around us in the everyday, in family, in books in nature and, of course, in our pets! Includes gems from the very best classic and contemporary poets, such as John Agard, Adrian Henri, Brian Patten, Carol Ann Duffy, Joseph Coelho, William Wordsworth and William Blake.

New adaptation of Moliere’s THE HYPOCHONDRIAC

New adaptation of TARTUFFE by Moliere