Most Popular Books by Roger McGough

Roger McGough is one of Britain''s best loved poets and this collection ''charts [his] passage from youthful exuberance to the wry reflection of his later years. What remains the same throughout the 40 years is the poet''s winning wit, accessibility and abiding readability'' Independent ---------------------------------- ''Time has confirmed ... that McGough''s talent was much more substantial than many of his long-forgotten detractors suspected. If he was a pop poet it was not in any ephemeral sense. A shy extrovert ... he has given voice to poetry and found a voice of his own which is humourful, introspective, irreverent, easy on the ear, conversational. It is also memorable and enduring and fresh. Age has not withered [his lines] nor diminished their potency. Of how much modern poetry can you say that?'' Sunday Herald

A wonderful selection of over 100 of Roger''s own best-loved poems from his vast Puffin catalogue of poetry collections. Lots of favourites and some lesser known surprises, too. Packed with fabulous Lydia Monks illustrations throughout.

One of Britain''s most popular poets, Roger McGough has written many books for both children and adults. This book includes a selection of some of his finest and best loved verse, featuring new and previously unpublished poems.

Waiter, there''s a sky in my pie! Roger McGough has cooked up a delicious feast of poems. This spicy collection contains only the finest ingredients - wit, sparkle and thought-provoking insight from a very superior source. Get ready to have your tastebuds tickled! Warning: some poems will make you choke with laughter, some need to be chewed very carefully.

Wouldn''t it be funny if you didn''t have a nose? The brilliant and clever Roger McGough asks this and other important questions in this marvellous collection. He also tells you exactly when to cut your fingernails, how to have a real pillow fight and what happens when a burp escapes!

It Never Rains by Roger McGough - an expanded edition of comic verse and free line drawings, from the nation''s favourite poet While up at Magdalen Spent the time dagdalen. Moved on to Caius Became the baius knaius. ''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. ''The patron saint of poetry'' Carol Ann Duffy 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.

A brilliant collection of brand-new poems from ''the patron saint of poetry''. Longer, narrative poems sit comfortably with Roger McGough''s sharper observations and insightful words in this collection, perfectly illustrated in black-and-white line by Helen Stephens.

In this evocative and personal collection of poems Roger McGough comes to terms with painful memories as well as confronting fears that are universal. Here he remembers his father in ‘Squaring Up’ and ‘Alphabet Soup’; observes the eccentricities of contemporary life in ‘The City of London Tour’; gives insights into human feeling with the surreal ‘Your Favourite Hat’ and the moving elegy ‘Defying Gravity’; and muses on writing itself with ‘Word Trap’ and ‘The Darling Buds of Maybe’. There are even witty poems dedicated to the chemical elements. Blending the everyday and the magical, his verses sparkle with verbal dexterity, irreverent humour, irony and heartfelt compassion.

BBC Radio 4''s Poetry Please is the longest-running broadcast of verse anywhere in the world. First aired in 1979, the programme, a request show which broadcasts to two million listeners a week, has become a unique record of the country''s best-loved poems over the decades since its inception. The BBC has looked back through its rich archive of recordings to produce a poll of the most asked for and most broadcast pieces ever: fifty of those poems are read here by Adjoa Andoh and Anton Lesser, both regular voices for the programme. The selection includes poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, William Blake, Rupert Brooke, Lord Byron, G.K. Chesterton, T. S. Eliot, Robert Frost, John Keats, Edward Lear, Sylvia Plath, Christina Rossetti, William Shakespeare, Dylan Thomas, William Wordsworth, and W.B. Yeats

''The Mersey Sound is an attempt to introduce contemporary poetry to the general reader by publishing representative work by each of three modern poets in a single volume, in each case the selection has been made to illustrate the poet''s characteristics in style and form''. With this modest brief, The Mersey Sound was conceived and first published in 1967. An anthology which features Roger McGough''s work, alongside that of Brian Patten and Adrian Henri (The Liverpool Poets), it went on to sell over half a million copies and to become the bestselling poetry anthology of all time.

There are over 50 poems in this hugely enjoyable poetry collection with themes ranging from food and animals to school and ghouls. As always, Roger Mcgough''s poems are full of wit and wisdom, with word play, puns and sharp observations on all aspects of life. He''s even included his own unique line drawings which are full of humour and pathos. Children are sure to ask for another slice of this brand new poetry pie!

A brand new collection for children from beloved poet, writer and broadcaster - Roger McGough Just when you are ready to write your first poem, along come the words and cause mayhem! ''Poems can be like that sometimes,'' says Roger McGough. Here Roger''s witty poems take you from school and home to places far and wide, and back again just in time to finish the poem you first started.

Take comfort from this. You have a book in your hand not a loaded gun or a parking fine or an invitation card to the wedding of the one you should have married. Roger McGough is a poet at once directly accessible and a master of the art of surprise, in which the everyday wold is refreshingly and, at times, darkly reimagined. Although a distinct sense of menace inhabits many of the poems, he faces the uncertainties and fears of ageing with characteristic wit and courage. One of the most striking poems in this new collection is a reworking of his famous 1960s poem ''let Me Die a Youngman''s Death'' this time entitled ''Not For Me a Youngmans''s Death''. He is a poet of many voices, the Scottish hard man, the smug husband on his deathbed, the odious self-deceiver of the title poem. McGough is equally ''At Home with the Surrealists'' as he is on an underground station waiting for a train that will never arrive. Always inventive and irrepressibly comic, the warmth and honesty of the voice reaffirms his position as a true original.

If Philosophy is the Why? And Science is the How? Then Poetry is the Wow! In this stunning, brand-new volume, you''ll discover poems about poems, poems about life, poems about kangaroos and chameleons and caterpillars (though not in the same verse) and many more. This touching and thought-provoking collection will make you laugh, cry, or simply say ''Wow!''

It was Wednesday if I remember rightly. I never liked Wednesdays for some reason. I could never spell ''Wednesday'' for a start. And it always seemed to rain on Wednesdays. And there were two days to go before the weekend ...

A collection of poems for the 11+ age group. Roger McGough has selected the poems from the world of living poets, many of them little known, and has included a number of his own poems. Most of the poems are humorous, some are sad, but nearly all are relevant to today''s teenagers.

First produced in 1673 and Molière''s final play, The Hypochondriac is a scathingly funny lampoon on both hypochondria and the ''quack'' medical profession. Argan is a perfectly healthy, wealthy gentleman, convinced that he is seriously ill. So obsessed is he with medicinal tinkerings and tonics that he is blind to the goings on in his own household. However, his most efficacious cure will not appear in a bottle or a bedpan, but in his sharp-tongued servant, who has a cunning plan to reveal the truth and open her master''s eyes. Adapted by Roger McGough The Hypochondriac was produced by the Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse and English Touring Theatre and premiered on 19 June 2009.

This is the fourth volume in a series which aims to show the richness and diversity of contemporary poetry. It offers representative poems of three poets, Liz Lochhead, Roger McGough and Sharon Olds, who chose the poems themselves.

Roger McGough’s delightfully ingenious text and Chris Riddell’s striking illustrations take children into the fascinating world of technology to discover the workings of familiar machines. Two inventive talents in children’s literature, poet Roger McGough and illustrator Chris Riddell entertain, inspire and introduce children to the technology around them. "Roger McGough''s witty text offers many weird and wonderful explanations ... Chris Riddell''s artwork makes the whole an imaginative feast" - Bookseller Runner-up for the English Association 4-11 Award for the Best Children''s Picture Book. Nominated for the Kate Greenaway Medal.

‘If poems were gifts, and in many ways they are, children will find plenty to absorb and amuse them in this bulging stocking of an anthology.’ Roger McGough From traditional verses by Christina Rossetti and William Blake to modern classics by Julia Donaldson and Benjamin Zephaniah, this heart-warming Christmas anthology will delight children and adults of all ages. All the wonders of the season are captured in 100 Best Christmas Poems for Children. Perfect for reading aloud with all the family or for children aged 8-12 to read to themselves, there are verses that will encourage you to reflect on the Christmas themes of joy, hope and peace for all the world, while also savouring the festive fun of everything else that Christmas brings – from the opening of the first Advent window to the tidying away of all the decorations on Twelfth Night. Edited and introduced by beloved poet Roger McGough, this enchanting children’s poetry book make a wonderful gift and keepsake and will be cherished by all who read it. Children will gain an appreciation for language and storytelling as the magic of Christmas is brought to life by this anthology that they’ll return to over and over again each year.

Here are the football results: League Division Fun Manchester United won, Manchester City lost. Crystal Palace 2, Buckingham Palace 1 Millwall Leeds nowhere Wolves 8. A cheese roll and had a cup of tea 2 Newcastle''s Heaven Sunderland''s a very nice place 2 Ipswhich one? You tell me. Football, first love, teachers and tongue-twistersâ?¬¿. This is a fantastic poetry collection by two of the funniest, most famous poets writing today.

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.

Roger McGough''s eagerly-awaited new collection is a powerful testament to the miraculous in the everyday. Here he builds us his world: one of chance encounters and embarrassing moments, of big questions and small wonders. ''At that awkward age now between birth and death,'' he addresses Alzheimers and wrestles with mortality. He resolves (and fails) to live every day as if it were his last, joins the Foreign Legion, jives in Macca''s trousers, shares the pain of Mr Sappho and Lord Godiva and plans a prison break. With his inimitable warmth, wit and wordplay, Roger McGough affirms his position as the pre-eminent poet of the magic moment - the happy collision of life, language and the imagination.

"This is [McGough''s] autobiography - and like the best of his poetry it is packed with humour, surreal observations, nostalgic reminiscences of love, life and loss. He tells of growing up in Liverpool during the Blitz, to the skiffle-crazy days of his adolescence, through to his time at university - and his meetings there with Larkin. He explores the ups-and-downs of being thrust into the limelight with The Scaffold, adrift in Soho helping write dialogue for the Beatles film ''Yellow Submarine, '' and adventures in New York writing lyrics for a Broadway musical. Having travelled widely over the years, his meetings with characters such as Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Allen Ginsberg, and Salman Rushdie amongst others are recalled. ..."--Jacket.

Roger McGough and Brian Patten have selected the very best of their animal poems in order to help two loveable monsters from outer space who visit Earth in search of a pet and need a bit of guidance...Split into sections, the monsters are introduced to animals that fly, swim, crawl and purr by two of our greatest childrens poets. Illustrated in Guy Parker-Rees'' lively and intimitable style.

A brilliant new collection of poems. The poetry contains the clever word-play, rich ideas and humour associated with Roger McGough. It includes a series of poems about the exploits of some gangster cats and verse based on CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS by Saint Saens.

In his first new book since Defying Gravity in 1993, Roger McGough mixes surreal nonsense with gentle humour.