Auto Amazon Links: No products found. Blocked by captcha.
Roger McGough, one of Britain’s most beloved and humorous poets, once expressed the simple pleasures of aging with the lines: “It’s a joy to be old. The dog dead and the car sold.” For him, another satisfaction in later life has been the act of decluttering. As he cleared out numerous boxes filled with notebooks, manuscripts, journals, project files, posters, letters, and personal artworks, McGough found his home much lighter in its contents. With a touch of wit, he even joked about selling old filing cabinets through this channel.
Recently, the University of Liverpool announced it had acquired the entirety of McGough’s archive. Already in their possession were extensive personal papers spanning his life up until 2007. Now, the collection has expanded to include materials from subsequent years, such as treasured travel journals that McGough had previously been hesitant to part with. At 88 years old, McGough described the honor of this acquisition, noting, “Where else but Liverpool, really.”
McGough’s career has been diverse and influential. Initially a teacher, he formed the group The Scaffold in the 1960s alongside Mike McCartney and John Gorman, known famously for their song “Lily the Pink.” He was also recognized as one of the “three Liverpool poets,” with Brian Patten and Adrian Henri, featured in the bestselling poetry anthology The Mersey Sound. Over his lifetime, McGough has published over 100 poetry books for both adults and children and hosted Radio 4’s Poetry Please for more than 25 years.
The archive offers a rich insight into cultural history, including correspondence with well-known figures such as Victoria Wood, Eric Idle, Harold Wilson, Esther Rantzen, and Philip Larkin. Despite Larkin’s reputation for being irritable and gloomy, McGough, who had been a student while Larkin was a university librarian, recalls a kinder
Read the full article from The Guardian here: Read More
Auto Amazon Links: No products found. Blocked by captcha.