Roger Joseph McGough (; born 9 November 1937) is an English poet, performance poet, broadcaster, children's author and playwright. He presents the

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

programme '' Poetry Please'', as well as performing his own poetry. McGough was one of the leading members of the Liverpool poets, a group of young poets influenced by

Beat poetry The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-World War II era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by members o ...

and the popular

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

and

culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

of 1960s

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

. He is an honorary fellow of

Liverpool John Moores University Liverpool John Moores University (abbreviated LJMU) is a public university, public research university in the city of Liverpool, England. The university can trace its origins to the Liverpool Mechanics' School of Arts, established in 1823. This ...

, a fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...

and President of the

Poetry Society The Poetry Society is a membership organisation, open to all, whose stated aim is "to promote the study, use and enjoyment of poetry". The society was founded in London in February 1909 as the Poetry Recital Society, becoming the Poetry Society ...

Early life

McGough was born in Litherland,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, on the outskirts of

, to Roger Francis, a docker, and Mary (McGarry) McGough. His ancestry is Irish and he was raised in the

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

faith. He was a pupil at St Mary's College in Crosby, before going on to study French and Geography at the

University of Hull The University of Hull is a public research university in Kingston upon Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1927 as University College Hull. The main university campus is located in Hull and is home to the Hu ...

.Emma Brockes interview: Roger McGough
''The Guardian'' 14 November 2005 McGough lived in one of the university residences, Needler Hall, for three years from 1955 and served as hall librarian. Contemporaneously, the poet Philip Larkin became the university's librarian; newly arrived at Hull, he served as a sub-warden at Needler Hall, though he lived in private accommodation nearby. Several years later McGough corresponded with Larkin about poetry, sending him some of his own poems as he still lacked the confidence to approach the man directly. Larkin replied, thanking McGough for the poetry, which he had enjoyed reading. He added that he believed that McGough walked an impressionistic tightrope which, though exhilarating, meant that on occasion he fell off.

The Scaffold and GRIMMS

Returning to Merseyside in the early 1960s, McGough worked as a French teacher and, with John Gorman, organised arts events. McGough and Gorman later met Mike McGear (Mike McCartney) and together formed the trio The Scaffold; they worked the

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

until they were signed to

Parlophone Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 1923 as the Parloph ...

records in 1966. The Scaffold performed a mixture of comic songs, comedy sketches and the poetry of McGough. The group scored several hit records, reaching number one in the UK Singles Chart in 1968 with their version of " Lily the Pink". McGough wrote the lyrics for many of the group's songs and also recorded the musical comedy/poetry album ''McGough and McGear''. In 1971 GRIMMS was formed, originally as a merger of the Scaffold, the

Bonzo Dog Band The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (also known as the Bonzo Dog Band or the Bonzos) was created by a group of British art-school students in the 1960s. Combining elements of music hall, trad jazz and psychedelia with surreal humour and avant-garde a ...

and the Liverpool Scene. Group member

Neil Innes Neil James Innes (; 9 December 1944 – 29 December 2019) was an English writer, comedian and musician. He first came to prominence in the comedy rock group the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later became a frequent collaborator with the Monty Py ...

said about the formation of the group: "I don't know what attracted the Scaffold to the Bonzos; we were incredibly anarchic, which was probably something shared by the Scaffold as well."Bowen, Phil. (2008) ''A Gallery to Play to: The Story of the Mersey Poets.'' Liverpool University Press. pp.104–106.

Poetry

As a poet, McGough came to national prominence through the publication of '' The Mersey Sound'' in 1967. ''The Mersey Sound'' is an

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...

of poetry by three Liverpool poets: McGough, Brian Patten, and Adrian Henri."XIV Modern Literature, section 5", John Brannigan
Accessed 9 April 2006 It went on to sell over 500,000 copies, becoming one of the bestselling poetry anthologies of all time; remaining in continuous publication, it was revised in 1983 and again in 2007. The title of the anthology was a conscious association of the three Liverpool poets with the musical phenomenon caused by the eruption of

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

and associated bands from the same city, known collectively as the " Merseybeat", on the world. McGough's personal connection with the Beatles was referenced in a much later comic poem, "To Macca's Trousers", contained in the book ''That Awkward Age'' (2009). McGough discovered a long forgotten pair of

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...

's blue mohair trousers in his attic; the trousers had been given to him, via McCartney's brother Mike, in the early 1960s. One of McGough's early poems, ''Let Me Die a Youngman's Death'' (but not, as the poem states, before the poet reaches 73, 91 or 104 years of age), was included in a

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

anthology of the British nation's hundred favourite poems. McGough has been nicknamed "the patron saint of poetry" by

Carol Ann Duffy Dame Carol Ann Duffy (born 23 December 1955) is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is a professor of contemporary poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Poet Laureate in May 2009, and her term expired in 2019. She wa ...

. Philip Larkin included McGough's poetry in '' The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse'', which he edited in 1973. Writing to McGough in 1980, Larkin congratulated him on the well-thumbed state of the copies of his books in Hull University's library, when compared to Larkin's own. Possibly his shortest, most memorable and overtly political poem, was entitled "Conservative Government Unemployment Figures". The text of poem repeats the words of the title, with layout and punctuation resulting in an arch critique. The poem was referenced in a parliamentary debate in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

in 2004. The poetry of McGough has been the subject of academic study. It has been characterised, at least from its early examples, as being reliant on play with words and their meanings. It has also been noted to exhibit a stylised wit, and, at times, a sadness based on themes of lost youth, unfulfilled relationships, and the downside of city life. The form of some of his verse, it has been claimed, has been influenced by his experience of writing song lyrics. A major critical examination of McGough's poetry, by American academic Ben Wright, was published in 2006. The author's stated aim was "to examine and evaluate the accessibility of Roger McGough's message to a wide, general readership, as well as appraising it by the most rigorous literary standards". McGough's popularity, commercial success, use of humour, and the lack of pretension of his verse has tended to restrict appreciation of his work as "serious poetry". Wright's study challenges this under-appreciation.

Other activities

McGough was responsible for much of the humorous dialogue in the Beatles' animated film '' Yellow Submarine'', although he did not receive an on-screen credit. On 2 March 1978, McGough appeared in '' All You Need Is Cash'', a mockumentary detailing the career of a Beatles-like group called

the Rutles The Rutles () were a rock band that performed visual and aural pastiches and parodies of the Beatles. This originally fictional band, created by Eric Idle and Neil Innes for a sketch in Idle's mid-1970s BBC television comedy series '' Rutland W ...

. Interviewed by

Eric Idle Eric Idle (born 29 March 1943) is an English actor, comedian, songwriter, musician, screenwriter and playwright. He was a member of the British comedy group Monty Python and the parody rock band the Rutles. Idle studied English at Pembroke Co ...

, the introduction of McGough takes so long that he is only asked one question, "Did you know the Rutles?" to which McGough cheerfully responds "Oh yes", before the documentary is forced to move along to other events. In 1980 he recited a high-speed one-minute version of Longfellow's poem " The Wreck of the Hesperus", complete with sound effects, on the album ''Miniatures'' produced by Morgan Fisher. One of McGough's more unusual compositions was created in 1981, when he co-wrote an "electronic poem" called ''Now Press Return'' with the programmer Richard Warner for inclusion with the ''Welcome Tape'' of the

BBC Micro The BBC Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a family of microcomputers developed and manufactured by Acorn Computers in the early 1980s as part of the BBC's Computer Literacy Project. Launched in December 1981, it was showcased across severa ...

home computer. ''Now Press Return'' incorporated several novel themes, including user-defined elements to the poem, lines which changed their order (and meaning) every few seconds, and text which wrote itself in a spiral around the screen. He contributed poetry to and narrated a programme in 1991 for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

called ''

Equinox A solar equinox is a moment in time when the Sun appears directly above the equator, rather than to its north or south. On the day of the equinox, the Sun appears to rise directly east and set directly west. This occurs twice each year, arou ...

: The Elements'' about the elements. He made a guest appearance on quiz panel show '' QI'' in 2006. Three plays written by the 17th-century French playwright

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world liter ...

have been translated by McGough and directed by Gemma Bodinetz. ''

Tartuffe ''Tartuffe, or The Impostor, or The Hypocrite'' (; , ), first performed in 1664, is a theatrical comedy (or more specifically, a farce) by Molière. The characters of Tartuffe, Elmire, and Orgon are considered among the greatest classical theat ...

'' premièred at the

Liverpool Playhouse The Liverpool Playhouse is a theatre in Williamson Square in the city of Liverpool, England. It originated in 1866 as a music hall, and in 1911 developed into a repertory theatre. As such it nurtured the early careers of many actors and actre ...

in May 2008 and transferred subsequently to the Rose Theatre, Kingston. ''The Hypochondriac'' (''

The Imaginary Invalid ''The Imaginary Invalid'', ''The Hypochondriac'', or ''The Would-Be Invalid'' ( French title ''Le Malade imaginaire'', ) is a three- act ''comédie-ballet'' by the French playwright Molière with dance sequences and musical interludes ( H.495, H ...

'') was staged at the Liverpool Playhouse in July 2009. ''

The Misanthrope ''The Misanthrope, or the Cantankerous Lover'' (; ) is a 17th-century comedy of manners in verse written by Molière. It was first performed on 4 June 1666 at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal (rue Saint-Honoré), Théâtre du Palais-Royal, Paris by ...

'' was staged at the Liverpool Playhouse in February–March 2013 before touring with the

English Touring Theatre English Touring Theatre (ETT) is a major touring theatre company based in London, England. History English Touring Theatre was founded in 1993 by Stephen Unwin. In 2008, the directorship of the company was taken over by Rachel Tackley, making E ...

. McGough has also done some

voiceover Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique used in radio, television, filmmaking, theatre, and other media in which a descriptive or expository voice that is not part of the narrative (i.e., non- ...

work narrating '' The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Stories'' by Eric Carle, and TV advertisements for the supermarket chain

Waitrose Waitrose Limited, trading as Waitrose & Partners, is a British supermarket chain, founded in 1904 as Waite, Rose & Taylor, later shortened to Waitrose. In 1937, it was acquired by the John Lewis Partnership, the UK's largest employee-owned b ...

. He is a patron of Barnes Literary Society. In 2019 he became the President of Arts Richmond for one year.

Awards

McGough won a

Cholmondeley Award The Cholmondeley Awards ( ) are annual awards for poetry given by the Society of Authors in the United Kingdom. Awards honour distinguished poets, from a fund endowed by the Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondeley in 1966. Since 1991 the award has bee ...

in 1998, and was appointed an Officer (OBE) in 1997, and later, in 2004, Commander (CBE) of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

.CBE for Liverpool poet McGough
''BBC News'' 12 June 2004 He holds an honorary MA from Nene College of Further Education, and honorary

Doctor of Letters Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or '), also termed Doctor of Literature in some countries, is a terminal degree in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. In the United States, at universities such as Drew University, the degree ...

(D.Litt.) degrees from the

(2004), Roehampton University (2006), and the

University of Liverpool The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a Public university, public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University (United Kingdom), Victoria University, it received Ro ...

(2006). He was made a Fellow of the

in 2004.

Academic posts

McGough was Fellow of Poetry at

Loughborough University Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public university, public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university sinc ...

(1973–75), Honorary Fellow at John Moores University, and Honorary Professor at

Thames Valley University The University of West London (UWL) is a Public university, public research university in the United Kingdom with campuses in Ealing, Brentford, and Reading, Berkshire. The university has roots in 1860 when the Lady Byron School was founded, ...

(1993).

Personal life

In 1970, McGough married Thelma Monaghan, and they had two children; they divorced in 1980. He married Hilary Clough in December 1986, with whom he has two children. He lives in Barnes, south west London; he and Clough previously lived on

Portobello Road is a street in the Notting Hill district of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London. It runs almost the length of Notting Hill from South to North, roughly parallel with Ladbroke Grove. On Saturdays it is home to Portobello ...

in Notting Hill Gate.

Books

Poetry collections

*''Young Commonwealth Poets '65'', Heinemann, 1965 * '' The Mersey Sound'' (with Adrian Henri and Brian Patten), Penguin, 1967 *''Frinck, A Life in the Day of, and Summer with Monika: Poems'', Joseph, 1967 *''Watchwords'', Cape, 1969 *''After the Merrymaking'', Cape, 1971 *''Out of Sequence'', Turret Books, 1972 *''Gig'', Cape, 1973 *''Sporting Relations'', Eyre Methuen, 1974 *''In the Glassroom'', Cape, 1976 *''Mr Noselighter'', André Deutsch, 1976 *''Holiday on Death Row'', Cape, 1979 *''Unlucky for Some'', Bernard Stone, 1980 *''Waving at Trains'', Cape, 1982 *''Crocodile Puddles'', New Pyramid Press, 1984 *''Sky in the Pie'', Puffin, 1985 (children's) *''Melting into the Foreground'', Viking, 1986 *''Noah's Ark'', Dinosaur, 1986 *''Worry'', Toni Savage, 1987 *''Nailing the Shadow'', Viking Kestrel, 1987 *''Counting by Numbers'', Viking Kestrel, 1989 *''Selected Poems, 1967–1987'', Cape, 1989 *''You at the Back: Selected Poems, 1967–87'', Cape, 1991 *''Defying Gravity'', Viking, 1992 *''Pen Pals: A New Poem'', Prospero Poets, 1994 *''Ferens, the Gallery Cat'', Ferens Art Gallery, 1997 *''Todays Yodal'', Over years ago, 1999 *''Until I Met Dudley'', Frances Lincoln, 1997 *''The Way Things Are'', Viking, 1999 *''Dotty Inventions'', Francis Lincoln, 2002 *''Everyday Eclipses'', Viking, 2002 *''Collected Poems'', Viking, 2003 *''That Awkward Age'', Penguin, 2009 *''As Far As I Know'', Penguin, 2012 *''Joinedupwriting'', Viking, 2019 *''Safety In Numbers'', Viking, 2021

Plays

* ''

'' (English adaptation of

's play) * ''The Hypochondriac'' (English adaption of

's play) * ''The Misanthrope'' (English adaptation of

's play)

Autobiography

*''Said And Done'', Random House, 2005

References

External links

*
Profile and poems written and audio
at Poetry Archive *
Interview with Roger McGough about 40 years of the Mersey Poets

BBC Radio 4 archive
4 October 1981 (Audio, 12 minutes)
BBC profile

James Campbell, "A life in poetry: Roger McGough", ''The Guardian'', 22 August 2009

National Portrait gallery

Shahesta Shaitly, ''Roger McGough: This much I know,'' The Observer, 4 November 2012
{{DEFAULTSORT:McGough, Roger People from Litherland Alumni of the University of Hull Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature People associated with Loughborough University 20th-century English poets 1937 births Living people Poets from Liverpool People educated at St Mary's College, Crosby English people of Irish descent The Scaffold members Grimms members English autobiographers Presidents of the Poetry Society English-language haiku poets