General Information
Roger McGough is an award winning poet, performance poet, playwright, author and radio broadcaster with over 50 books of poetry and plays published.
He was born on the 9th day of November 1937 in Liverpool, England to an ordinary working class family. He was a pupil at St Mary's College before attending the University of Hull to study French and Geography.
He was inspired by Beat poets in the early 1960’s and became an active member of the Liverpool Poets before having his first work published in the Mersey Sound: Penguin Modern Poets 10 which has sold over one million copies since its release.
Despite his popularity McGough continues to poke fun at his insecurities through dry, self-deprecating humour and keeps clear of what he calls ‘high brow’ poetry for fear of being called pretentious.
While in the early 1960s he formed The Scaffold along with his friends John Gorman and Mike McCartney (brother of the famous Paul). They performed comic songs, sketches and poetry of McGough and even got a record deal and a number one in 1968 with their version of Lily the Pink.
Roger McGough was one of the main script writers for the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine film and appeared in All You Need is Cash, which is a Beatles mockumentary about a group, called The Rutles.
He’s also co-written an “electronic poem” called Now Press Return with Richard Warner, which was included with the Welcome Tape of the BBC Micro home computer as well as translating three 17th Century French plays by Moliere as he had previously been a French Teacher.
Roger McGough continues to present a BBC Radio 4 programme called Poetry Please where he talks about poetry and performs his own work.
He was born on the 9th day of November 1937 in Liverpool, England to an ordinary working class family. He was a pupil at St Mary's College before attending the University of Hull to study French and Geography.
He was inspired by Beat poets in the early 1960’s and became an active member of the Liverpool Poets before having his first work published in the Mersey Sound: Penguin Modern Poets 10 which has sold over one million copies since its release.
Despite his popularity McGough continues to poke fun at his insecurities through dry, self-deprecating humour and keeps clear of what he calls ‘high brow’ poetry for fear of being called pretentious.
While in the early 1960s he formed The Scaffold along with his friends John Gorman and Mike McCartney (brother of the famous Paul). They performed comic songs, sketches and poetry of McGough and even got a record deal and a number one in 1968 with their version of Lily the Pink.
Roger McGough was one of the main script writers for the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine film and appeared in All You Need is Cash, which is a Beatles mockumentary about a group, called The Rutles.
He’s also co-written an “electronic poem” called Now Press Return with Richard Warner, which was included with the Welcome Tape of the BBC Micro home computer as well as translating three 17th Century French plays by Moliere as he had previously been a French Teacher.
Roger McGough continues to present a BBC Radio 4 programme called Poetry Please where he talks about poetry and performs his own work.
