Life, Love and The
Archers: Recollections, reviews and other prose by Wendy Cope
Published by Two
Roads Books
6th November 2014
Hardback Edition
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serious, taken from a lifetime of published and unpublished work, and all with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.
I first discovered Wendy Cope in the mid '90s when studying
for my A-level History exam and one of the women on the course had just bought
her book Serious Concerns. She
read me some of the poems from it, and I was hooked. I've loved Wendy Cope ever since.
My favourite poem of hers is Two Cures for Love which
goes like this:
Two Cures for Love
1. Don't see him. Don't phone or write a letter.
2. The easy way: get to know him better.
This new book is an accumulation of articles and some
previously unpublished poems that make up this fascinating writer. It's a book to be dipped in and out of, and
enjoyed at leisure, as we venture with Wendy into her childhood, and
beyond. I particularly like her
recollection at meeting Billy Graham, the evangelist!
If you are looking for a poetry book, then this isn't what
you will find here. If you want to know
more about Wendy herself, then this is an engaging read. Having read it, I still love Wendy Cope, and
maybe now, just a little bit more!
Happy Reading
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