Since he appeared on the Liverpool scene together with fellow poets Adrian Henri and Brian Patten in the early 1960s Roger McGough has been one of the most popular poets in Britain, both as pop poet and as popularizer of poetry. The Liverpool poets came to prominence at the same time as, and with a similar background to, the Beatles, and their best-selling poetry collection, subtitled Penguin Modern Poets 10 (1967), carried the title The Mersey Sound. McGough's books have sold consistently well; all his collections have been reprinted, and Gig went through five printings between 1973 and 1981. On the poetry-reading circuit McGough regularly draws large audiences, the success of his work being due not least to his own performance of it. He has a wide experience of the world of popular music as a member of The Scaffold (a pop music and poetry) group, from 1964 to 1975, with whom he rose...