Roger McGough
About Author
Roger McGough was born in Liverpool on November 9th 1937. As well as a writing and performing, Roger's previous jobs include techer, lecturer and pop star! He lives in London and his first book for children 'Mr Noselighter' was published in 1976.
Roger was born into a 'very volatile, very gabby, Liverpool family'. His house was a two-bedroom terrace near the docks at Seaforth, with a toilet at the bottom of the yard and the bath in the kitchen. Growing up in the war, 'new books, like bananas, were heard of, but not seen.' Roger's dad was a docker and 'quite frightened of books' but his mum read to him every night.
He studied to be a teacher at Hull University where Philip Larkin was the librarian. Larkin read Roger's first poems and encouraged him.
Roger first shot to fame in the 1960s as a singer with pop-group The Scaffold. For a time, the group shared the same manager as The Beatles, Brian Epstein. Roger appeared on Top of the Pops to perform the number one hit 'Lily the Pink' and 'Thank U Very Much'. The Scaffold shared gigs with Jimmy Hendrix, Elton John, Bob Dylan and Stan Getz. Roger confesses he wasn't much of a singer and didn't play an instrument 'I was always a good mover though'.
In 1967, Penguin published The Mersey Sound, an anthology which featured Roger's work, alongside that of Brian Patten and Adrian Henri. It went on to sell over half a million copies and to become the bestselling anthology of British verse. It also marked the arrival of the Mersey Poets.
Roger's first book of poetry for children was published in 1976. In part, this was inspired by having his own children, reading to them and writing for them. But Roger has never made a strong distinction between his poetry for adults and his poetry for children. 'Even when the collections express adult concerns, the audiences at readings will contain many young faces young people will definitely relate to the poetry too.'
In 1997, Roger was presented with the OBE a fitting tribute to his talent and influence.
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