Since its first publication in 1967 as Penguin Modern Poets no. 10, The Mersey Sound has become an icon of British poetry. Gathering the early, enormously influential work of Roger McGough, Brian Patten and Adrian Henri (The Liverpool Poets), it went on to sell over half a million copies and to become the bestselling poetry anthology of all time. In the course of subsequent editions, old poems were removed and new poems introduced; but now, in time for its 50th anniversary, this volume introduces the restored original selection into Penguin Modern Classics. With its tales of Northern romance, petrol-pump attendants and bus conductors, these are the poems that first spoke so strongly to the real lives behind Beatlemania and the Mersey Beat.