PHOTOGRAPHS, notebooks and manuscripts owned by the Liverpool Poets are going on display at the Victoria Gallery and Museum this week.

The Mersey Sound exhibition will chart the development and sources of inspiration of Roger McGough, Brian Patten and the late Adrian Henri – writers who were central to the city’s literary, music and visual arts scene of the 1960s.

The University of Liverpool acquired the poets’ archive in 2007, and this is the first time it will be made available to the public.

“The exhibition will reflect the culture, creativity and excitement of working in 1960s Liverpool,” says McGough.

“The archive is full of fond memories and recollections of Brian, Adrian and myself, and I hope visitors to the gallery will enjoy it.”

The trio made their name in the 1960s by aiming to create immediate and accessible poetry that would appeal to new audiences through joint anthologies such as The Mersey Sound, published in 1967.

Selling more than one million copies, the book became one of the most popular poetry collections ever published.

McGough and Patten continue to be prodigious writers, and have both have been made Freemen of the City of Liverpool.

As well as items connected to their poetry, the archive includes material relating to their activities in the fields of music, painting and performance.

Moira Lindsey, VG&M art curator, says: “Liverpool has always been a lively and inspirational city, and this new exhibit will illustrate its culture of poetry, music and art.

“It gives us a real insight into the social context of one of the most creative periods in the city’s history.”

The exhibition follows a significant grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and a number of other benefactors, which paid for an archivist to catalogue the collections.

McGough and Patten, and Henri’s partner, Catherine Marcangeli, will be getting together to launch the exhibition in person tomorrow.

MERSEY Sound is at the University of Liverpool’s Victoria Gallery and Museum, Brownlow Hill, from Friday to September 12.

READ Daily Post writer Emma Pinch’s interview with McGough and Patten on the 2007 relaunch of The Mersey Sound at http://bit.ly/liverpoolpoets