That Awkward Age - Roger McGough

The series of poems about husbands of famous historical figures is in a similar vain to those of Carol Ann Duffy’s “The World’s Wife”. How did you feel these poems worked? Did you like/dislike them? Did it bother you that the idea had been done before? How do they compare to the poems by Duffy?

Many of the poems are humorous or ironic? Do you enjoy this style of writing or did you want some serious poems as well? Does it remind you of any other writers?

Have you read any of McGough’s earlier work? How does this compare?

What did you think of the series that began “to…” in which the poet addresses various things? Does this type of poem work? What is the author trying to achieve?

The poet makes many allusions to childhood and death in this collection? How do you feel he handled these subject matters? Is it a nostalgic collection?

McGough has been described as one of the nation’s lighter poets – do you feel that this is a fair description? Did you detect any darker undercurrents to his work?

McGough is often alluded to as a Liverpool Poet - did you get any sense of this from this collection?

What was your favourite/least favourite poem in the collection? Why?

How did you feel about the collection as a whole?