Part of Stamford Verse Festival

Join poet Roger McGough as he performs poems from his new collection, Collected Poems, a distillation of over 40 books across sixty years and will be the McGough bible for decades to come.

The ‘Patron Saint of Poetry’, Roger McGough is presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Poetry Please and President of the Poetry Society and has inspired thousands of young poets. 87 years old now 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 during 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, Bob Dylan and Top of the Pops.

There will be laugh-out-loud poems about cats and dogs, the Bad Bad Cats from the CPL, and Mafia Cats, and about growing old, A Joy to be Old, A Cure for Ageing, which aptly round up the evening.

Copies of Roger McGough’s books will be available to buy on the night, and Roger will be signing books after the show.

ROGER MCGOUGH

Poet, performer and broadcaster, Roger McGough has published over 100 poetry books for adults and children and has been called ‘the patron saint of poetry’ and ‘the godfather of modern poetry’. He was one of the Liverpool poets, alongside Adrian Henri and Brian Patten who influenced popular culture in the Sixties. The Mersey Sound published in 1967 is one of the bestselling poetry anthologies of all time, selling over a million copies. In the 1960’s with John Gorman, and Mike McGear he formed The Scaffold, performing a combination of comic songs, poetry and sketches who had several top 20 singles including the hit song ‘Lily the Pink’.