Dimensions
144 x 222 x 15mm
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's new book of poems shows him writing as fluently and inventively as ever.
There may be a stronger strain of melancholy than before (the death of a regular in the local pub; the news that a daughter might be moving abroad), as well as a distinct sense of menace, small but insistent, which inhabits many of the poems. But there is plenty of McGough's characteristic wit and wordplay too, including a scintillating series of haiku inspired by a London tube strike and a striking reworking of his famous 1960s poem 'Let Me Die a Youngman's Death', this time entitled 'Not For Me a Youngman's Death'.
Who but McGough would characterize the butcher's window as 'the friendly face of the abattoir', or imagine the almost limitless ways in which we might go to bed? A new book of poems by Roger McGough is always an event. Published just ahead of his 75th birthday, As Far As I Know is truly cause for celebration.
