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Children's reading lists

The best poetry books for children

Over to You!

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.

Roger McGough is a true original and more than one generation would be much the poorer without him

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.

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.

Safety in Numbers

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. 
_______________ 
 
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

Sparky, thoughtful, inventive, and fun, it's also the mix of these qualities that makes this a fantastic collection

This slim volume is a joy, packed with wry observation, vim and wit that deftly captures the spirit of these strange times we inhabit. Journeying through topical subjects, from rising oceans and adultery in lockdown to seaside staycations and an ode to Laura Kuenssberg, poet Roger McGough has a keen eye for the magical moments within the mundanities of modern life

Probably the best-known contemporary poet in the country, Roger McGough still tours his brand of zany takes on British culture . . . Safety in Numbers runs with several themes, including the pandemic, how to write poems and even being a narrator and voice-over artist. . . . [with] a lot of characteristically clever imagery and wordplay, such as in Warning Signs, a list of aphorisms, "Time to hit the road? You stumble, hit the road".

Expert Reviews, Best Poetry Books for 2022

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

McGough has done for poetry what champagne does for weddings

Memorable and enduring and fresh. Age has not withered [his lines] nor diminished their potency. Of how much modern poetry can you say that?

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

From 'Adultery in Isolation' to 'After You. No, After You' to 'Seaside Staycation,' a new collection from one of Britain's best-loved poets. Roger McGough brings his inimitable voice to subjects light and dark, relationships old and new, and the slippery, strange, and surreal nature of recent times. Alight with humour, wit, wisdom, and feeling, the finest poetry with the lightest touch from a poet who has captured the imagination of readers for decades.

joinedupwriting

'The patron saint of poetry' Carol Ann Duffy 
 
'McGough is a true original and more than one generation would be much the poorer without him' The Times 
_______________ 
 
For fifty years, Roger McGough has delighted readers with poetry that is at once playful and poignant, intimate and universal. In his latest collection, he explores the whole gamut of the human experience, from forgotten friendships and family life, to the trauma of war and contemporary politics, wittily showing us who we are in all our shades of light and dark. 
 
_______________ 
 
'McGough has done for poetry what champagne does for weddings' Time out 
 
'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 
 
'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

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.

There are eighty of Roger McGough's wonderful poems in this hugely enjoyable collection, gathered into a new volume to celebrate Roger's 80th birthday! The poems have been specially chosen to reflect Roger's unique sense of humour, his wit and wisdom and sharp observations on all aspects of life. New, quirky illustrations by the author himself add further enjoyment!

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.

There are eighty of Roger McGough's wonderful poems in this hugely enjoyable collection, gathered together into a new volume to celebrate Roger's 80th birthday! Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, but always inventive, the enormous variety of poems from this hugely popular poet will never cease to amaze and delight children of all ages.

Summer with Monika

Summer with Monika is an honest and touching portrait of a romance, charting the progress of a love affair from the delicious intimacy of the honeymoon, with the milk bottles turning to cheese on the doorstep, through the stage of quarrels, jealousy, recriminations and boredom, to the point where love is as nice as a cup of tea in bed. 
 
Re-issued for its 50th anniversary, Summer with Monika is a hidden gem of British love poetry featuring beautiful illustrations from Children's Laureate Chris Riddell.

McGough has done for poetry what champagne does for weddings

He is a true original and more than one generation would be much the poorer without him

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

Memorable and enduring and fresh. Age has not withered [his lines] nor diminished their potency. Of how much modern poetry can you say that?

Roger McGough's famous poem sequence Summer with Monika charts a bitter-sweet love affair from joy through jealousy to the time when love becomes 'as nice as a cup of tea in bed'. First illustrated by Peter Blake in 1967, this 50th anniversary edition of McGough's tender, wry and witty love story is now beautifully illustrated by the celebrated illustrator and author, Chris Riddell.

Summer with Monika is a love poem, charting the progress of a romance from the delicious intimacy of the honeymoon through to the stage of quarrels, jealousy, recriminations and boredom, to the point where love is as nice as a cup of tea in bed. 
 
Re-issued for its 50th anniversary, Summer with Monika is a hidden gem of British love poetry featuring beautiful illustrations from Children's Laureate Chris Riddell.

Restored 50th Anniversary Edition

The Mersey Sound

<a href="https://shop.penguin.co.uk/collections/book-bundles-modern-classics/?&amp;utm_source=Penguin.co.uk&amp;utm_medium=Linked_text&amp;utm_campaign=Penguin_Modern_Classics_Series_26_06">Choose 3 timeless classics for only £21 over on the Penguin Shop</a>

'I wanted your soft verges 
But you gave me the hard shoulder' 
 
The Mersey Sound brought poetry down from the shelf and on to the street, capturing the mood of the Sixties and speaking to real lives with its irreverent, wry, freewheeling verses of young love, petrol-pump attendants, CND leaflets and bus journey capers. Bringing together the hugely influential work of Adrian Henri, Roger McGough and Brian Patten - the 'Liverpool Poets' - this perennially beloved volume is the bestselling poetry anthology of all time. Now, for its fiftieth anniversary, this edition restores the original text of the book as it first appeared in 1967: energetic, raw and a true record of its era.

Since its first publication in 1967 as Penguin Modern Poets no. 10, The Mersey Sound has become an icon of British poetry. Gathering the early, enormously influential work of Roger McGough, 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. In the course of subsequent editions, old poems were removed and new poems introduced; but now, in time for its 50th anniversary, this volume introduces the restored original selection into Penguin Modern Classics. With its tales of Northern romance, petrol-pump attendants and bus conductors, these are the poems that first spoke so strongly to the real lives behind Beatlemania and the Mersey Beat.

Roger McGough

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

1959 – 2024

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.

Roger McGough

Praise for The Collected Poems

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

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

McGough has done for poetry what champagne does for weddings

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

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

McGough has done for poetry what champagne does for weddings

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

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

McGough has done for poetry what champagne does for weddings

Books by Roger McGough

Articles featuring Roger McGough

The best poetry books for children

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