Collected Poems

<p>SHORTLISTED FOR THE WALCOTT PRIZE<br><b><br>‘Her poetry stands unsurpassed in its popularity and technical accomplishment – there’s no better contemporary writer of forms such as the triolet – and in the wit, acuity and seriousness of purpose with which she shows us what it is to be human.’ <i>Guardian<br></i><br>This volume comprises the full poetic works of one of our wittiest, most beloved writers, and includes many previously uncollected poems.</b><br><br>When <i>Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis</i> was published in 1986, Wendy Cope became that rarest of creatures: a celebrated poet who was also a best-seller. Her artful combination of insight and wit made an extraordinary impact in poems that cocked a gentle snook at the pomposity of a literary world hitherto dominated by men.<br><br>Through four further collections, Cope has continued to delight her readers while finding a whole new generation of enthusiasts when her poem ‘The Orange’ went viral. Together these poems catalogue the desires and fears that underlie our ordinary existences – love and heartbreak, disappointment and a hard-won capacity to find happiness, even if only in the form of a poem.. In their profound attention to and encapsulation of the everyday, these poems serve to make our own lives the more remarkable and memorable. <i>Collected Poems </i>celebrates a lifetime’s achievement by a poet who has been original and distinctive from the very start, and provides the perfect accompaniment to the trials, tribulations and joys of our all too human lives.<br><br>This collection also features Nick Garland’s original illustrations for <i>The River Girl</i> (1991).<br><br>‘Her poetry stands unsurpassed in its popularity and technical accomplishment – there’s no better contemporary writer of forms such as the triolet – and in the wit, acuity and seriousness of purpose with which she shows us what it is to be human.’ Rishi Dastidar, <i>Guardian</i><br><br>‘We can love Wendy Cope’s words . . . for the rhymes they reveal but also for the sad truths they speak.’ Adam Gopnik, <i>New Yorker </i><br><br>‘One has to go back to Byron to find a poet as consistently witty, wide-ranging and technically outstanding as Cope.’ <i>Los Angeles Review of Books</i><br><br>‘We need not wonder at Wendy Cope’s continued, wide appeal. She writes poems that people want to read, and this is how poems survive.’<i> Literary Review</i><br><br>‘Wit and heart? Cope’s fans should rest assured there are enough gems here with both.’ <i>Telegraph</i> <br><br>‘Wendy Cope’s real strength lies not in charm or insight (she has buckets of both) but in the pitch-perfect exactitude of her writing.’ <i>Sunday Times</i><br><br>‘Her poems are moving, memorable, funny, clever; they alert readers to what it means to be human.’ <i>PN Review</i><br><br>'Any book of [Cope's] work is a national treasure chest ... her work has, with care and precision, given us pathways to negotiate the world ... Her<i> Collected Poems </i>is as human as an embrace.' Ian McMillan, <i>BBC Radio 4's The Verb</i></p>