Safety in Numbers

Sparky, thoughtful, inventive, and fun, it’s also the mix of these qualities that makes this a fantastic collection * Buzz Magazine *
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 * Herald *
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 * The Times *
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, on ‘joinedupwriting’ *
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, on ‘joinedupwriting’ *
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.

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