In this evocative and personal collection of poems Roger McGough comes to terms with painful memories as well as confronting fears that are universal. Here he remembers his father in Squaring Up and Alphabet Soup ; observes the eccentricities of contemporary life in The City of London Tour ; gives insights into human feeling with the surreal Your Favourite Hat and the moving elegy Defying Gravity ; and muses on writing itself with Word Trap and The Darling Buds of Maybe . There are even witty poems dedicated to the chemical elements. Blending the everyday and the magical, his verses sparkle with verbal dexterity, irreverent humour, irony and heartfelt compassion.