Take comfort from this. You have a book in your hand not a loaded gun or a parking fine or an invitation card to the wedding of the one you should have married.

Roger McGough is a poet who is at once directly accessible and a master of the art of surprise. He can delight us with his puns, sadden us with his stories, and occasionally tell us a few unwelcome truths too.

This new collection demonstrates the tremendous variety of his work. He imagines the various home lives of the Surrealists, composes a couple of lyrics for the lovelorn waiting at the station, plays around with a few dictionary definitions - but above all faces the uncertainties and fears of ageing with characteristic wit and courage.

Always inventive and irrepressibly comic, the warmth and honesty of his voice reaffirms McGough as a true original.

'The same blend of mischievous wordplay, subversion of cliche and distinctive sense of humour that makes him one of Britain's most popular poets.' Spectator

'Self-effacing, unshowy, frequently funny, but with a quiet frankness.' Scotsman