Collected Poems

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WALCOTT PRIZE

Her poetry stands unsurpassed in its popularity and technical accomplishment - theres 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.Guardian


This volume comprises the full poetic works of one of our wittiest, most beloved writers, and includes many previously uncollected poems.

When Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis 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.

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. Collected Poems celebrates a lifetimes 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.

This collection also features Nick Garlands original illustrations for The River Girl (1991).

Her poetry stands unsurpassed in its popularity and technical accomplishment - theres 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, Guardian

We can love Wendy Copes words . . . for the rhymes they reveal but also for the sad truths they speak. Adam Gopnik, New Yorker

One has to go back to Byron to find a poet as consistently witty, wide-ranging and technically outstanding as Cope.Los Angeles Review of Books

We need not wonder at Wendy Copes continued, wide appeal. She writes poems that people want to read, and this is how poems survive. Literary Review

Wit and heart? Copes fans should rest assured there are enough gems here with both.Telegraph

Wendy Copes real strength lies not in charm or insight (she has buckets of both) but in the pitch-perfect exactitude of her writing.Sunday Times

Her poems are moving, memorable, funny, clever; they alert readers to what it means to be human.PN Review

Any book of [Copes] work is a national treasure chest ... her work has, with care and precision, given us pathways to negotiate the world ... Her Collected Poems is as human as an embrace. Ian McMillan, BBC Radio 4s The Verb