An Evening with Roger McGough: Alive and Giggling

Roger McGough, the ‘Living proof of himself,’ and President of the Poetry Society not only helped kickstart the musical careers of Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix, but inspired hundreds, if not thousands of young poets (well, quite a few), on their poetic journeys.

87 years old and at that awkward age now between birth and death, he puts on a brave face and takes to the stage with a show featuring new poems as well as old favourites.

The new show takes audiences on a journey back to key moments of his life. McGough reflects on his Liverpool childhood just before World War II, with memories and poems including The Full English, The Overall Winner and Learning to Read. Memories of his mum and dad are told through poems The Railing and What Does Your Father Do, and some are a throwback to the ’60s, namely The Beatles and Top of the Pops.

New verses have been added for Lily the Pink, which take a playful update on the 1968 classic by The Scaffold.

As well as laughs, there will be new poems about growing old (inevitably). A Joy to be Old, A Cure for Ageing and Let me Die an Old Man’s Death, which aptly round up the new show.

THE COLLECTED POEMS: 1959-2024

ROGER McGOUGH

The collected works of ‘the patron saint of poetry’, Roger McGough

‘This triumphant anthology stuns…If you’ve only room for one book when you go on holiday this summer, take this.’

The Guardian

A historic collection – a distillation of over 40 books across sixty years, this collection will be the McGough bible for decades to come.

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

‘McGough is a true original and more than one generation would be much the poorer without him’ The Times

‘McGough's trademarks: the craft worn as lightly as the crown, the jokes that are something more, the underlying heartache, the acute sense of the way time slips away’ Poetry Review

Roger McGough was a member of the group Scaffold in the 1960s when he contributed poems to the Penguin title The Mersey Sound, which has since sold over a million copies and is now available as a Penguin Classic. He has published many books of poems for children and adults, and both his Collected Poems (2004) and Selected Poems (2006) are also available in Penguin. He presents Poetry Please on Radio 4 and is President of the Poetry Society. He was honoured with the Freedom of the City of Liverpool in 2001 and with a CBE in 2005 for services to literature.