It Never Rains by Roger McGough – an expanded edition of comic verse and free line drawings, from the nation’s favourite poet

While up at MagdalenSpent the time dagdalen. Moved on to CaiusBecame the baius knaius. ‘Oxford Blues’ is one of the many new poems in this expanded and revised edition of The State of Poetry, Roger McGough’s book of short humorous verse which was published in 2005 as part of Penguin’s 70s series celebrating its 70th anniversary.

From a poem commissioned to commemorate Dylan Thomas in just 140 characters, which unfortunately comes to an end mid-word, to a pre-emptive erratum notice, these poems show McGough at his inventive, hilarious best – and there are also new line drawings by the author offered at no extra cost. ‘The patron saint of poetry’ Carol Ann DuffyRoger 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.