As Far As I Know

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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 melancholy strain than before (the death of a regular in the local pub; the news that a daughter might be moving abroad), and a distinct sense of menace, small but insistent, inhabits many of the poems. But there is plenty of McGough's characteristic wit and wordplay too, including a series of haiku on a London tube strike and a striking reworking of his famous 60s 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 abbatoir'; or imagine the almost limitless ways in which we may 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.