Life, Love and The Archers, Wendy Cope
Life, Love and The Archers, Wendy Cope
List: $22.99 | Sale: $16.09
Club: $11.49

Life, Love and The Archers
recollections, reviews and other prose

Author: Wendy Cope

Narrator: Wendy Cope

Unabridged: 6 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: John Murray

Published: 11/06/2014

Synopsis

'IS IT ANY WONDER THAT SO MANY OF US LOVE HER?' Francis Wheen, Mail on Sunday
Wendy Cope has long been one of the nation's best-loved poets, with her sharp eye for human foibles and wry sense of humour. For the first time, Life, Love and the Archers brings together the best of her prose - recollections, reviews and essays from the light-hearted to the serious, taken from a lifetime of published and unpublished work, and all with Cope's lightness of touch.
Here readers can meet the Enid-Blyton-obsessed schoolgirl, the ambivalent daughter, the amused teacher, the sensitive journalist, the cynical romantic and the sardonic television critic, as well as touching on books and writers who have informed a lifetime of reading and writing.
Wendy Cope is a master of the one-liner as well as the couplet, the telling review as well as the sonnet, and Life, Love and the Archers gives us a wonderfully entertaining and unforgettable portrait of one of England's favourite writers.
A book for anyone who's ever fallen in love, tried to give up smoking, or consoled themselves that they'll never be quite as old as Mick Jagger.

(P)2014 John Murray Press

About Wendy Cope

Wendy Cope read history at Oxford and then worked for 15 years as a London primary school teacher. Her first book of poems, Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis, was published in 1986. Since then she has been a freelance writer. Her most recent book of poems is Family Values, published in 2011. She lives in Ely.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Ryan on October 02, 2022

Witty and self-depreciating collection of little gems. Her best poems, funny as they often are, constantly veer between repression and catharsis. The latter claims the field here and all the better for it. Perhaps it's Cope's very English fear of seeming self important, like Robert Lowell at his wor......more

Goodreads review by Jacqueline on October 14, 2015

Wendy Cope became famous for her collection of poetry called Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis. People who read a lot of poetry enjoyed it; and people who didn't read a lot of poetry also enjoyed it, because it was funny and clever. This book is a collection of snippets from a biography she never publis......more

Goodreads review by Phil on August 24, 2018

a great books of stories and tales from the life of Wendy cope i love her poems and this just gave me some back story to Wendy loved it......more

Goodreads review by Jane on December 13, 2015

A set of recollections never written with publication in mind? Mildly interesting, but probably should have stayed unpublished. On the other hand, I really enjoyed the sharp, witty reviews which originally appeared in The Spectator in the early 1990s and now have the added benefit of inducing nostal......more

Goodreads review by Josie on March 09, 2020

Any collection of articles or short stories is bound to have hits and misses, this one isn't any different. There were pieces that i liked, pieces i found mediocre or dated, a few i didn't enjoy (thankfully not too many of those). I'm glad i read this collection before reading any more of Copes poetry......more

Quotes

funny, fearless and unflinchingly truthful Times Literary Supplement - Books of the Years 2014

thought-provoking and inspiring Independent on Sunday - Books of the Year 2014

delightful... Behind her fluid style and droll wit emerges a woman who was in analysis five times a week for ten years, and who wondered what she was doing wrong when she read about single women enjoying their freedom with the company of supportive friends. A marvellously honest and entertaining compilation of her wonderful writing. Daily Mail (Must Reads)

entertaining and moving, with appeal far beyond stalwart Cope fans... Life, Love and The Archers begins poignantly with hints of humour ... with the final section prompting several mortifying laugh-out-loud-on-public-transport incidents Independent on Sunday

This anthology of prose from Britain's best-loved poet is wonderful, wistful and has some wisecracking one-liners Tatler

This collection of her prose reveals a more serious Wendy Cope... What holds the book together is an unflinching honesty - about her depression, her finances, her love life. And, most of all, about poetry... Cope's truth-telling about her own life may disturb some admirers, but the occasional bleakness is warmed and illuminated by shafts of comic sunlight... Is it any wonder that so many of us love her? Mail on Sunday

A wonderful mix of poet Wendy Cope's prose, uncovered from the archives of The British Library. Find hidden gems such as extracts from an abandoned memoir and unpublished essays Billy Graham, smoking addiction and more. The book also comprises published prose, including a hilarious collection of TV reviews written for the Spectator in the 80s. Perfect to dip into over the holidays. Mumsnet

In the end, as she says ruefully, "What will survive of us will be quoted out of context." But at least Wendy Cope will be quoted with delight The Times

a sort of autobiography in fragments. She is as uncompromising here in her insistence on telling the truth; the honesty about her love life that marks her poetry finds a corresponding honesty about the practical business of life... It is remarkable how much Cope writes, often to comic effect, about time-killing pursuits which free us of anxiety - darts, sudoku, comfort eating, even, as the book's title suggests, listening to the Archers. Times Literary Supplement

Her writing is always witty and insightful Good Housekeeping - Best non-fiction book of the month, December 2014

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