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Safety in Numbers

Safety in Numbers

Summary

This is not the time for adultery.
Your lover will fail to be impressed,
not so much by the face mask
and stale musk of sanitizing gel,
but your flouting of the rules.

At once funny and moving, Safety in Numbers is the new collection from the nation's favourite poet. Traversing new yet timeless terrain with his signature wit and intimacy, Roger McGough brings to life the very strangeness of our times

From lost tongues and violins to rising oceans, from adulterers in lockdown to ghosts in line, we may live in dark times and yet find ourselves laughing. From surprising angles and with unexpected voices, McGough, 'a trickster you can trust', reveals the telling moments of our lives.
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PRAISE FOR ROGER MCGOUGH

'A witty and ingenious chronicler of British life with a deftness and agility that is hard to beat' Poetry Society

'The patron saint of poetry' Carol Ann Duffy

'McGough has done for poetry what champagne does for weddings' Time Out


Reviews

  • Sparky, thoughtful, inventive, and fun, it's also the mix of these qualities that makes this a fantastic collection
    Buzz Magazine

About the author

Roger McGough

Roger McGough was a member of the group Scaffold in the 1960s when he contributed poems to the Penguin title The Mersey Sound, which has since sold over a million copies and is now available as a Penguin Classic. He has published many books of poems for children and adults, and both his Collected Poems (2004) and Selected Poems (2006) are also available in Penguin. He presents Poetry Please on Radio 4 and is President of the Poetry Society. He was honoured with the Freedom of the City of Liverpool in 2001 and with a CBE in 2005 for services to literature.
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