Overview

Wendy Cope is one of Britain’s most popular poets: her first two collections have together sold almost half a million copies, and in 1998, when Ted Hughes died, she was the BBC listeners’ choice to succeed him as Poet Laureate. She is also contrarian and sometimes controversial, and has been celebrated as one of the finest parodists of her, or any, generation. It is perhaps surprising, then, that her popular appeal has been met with critical near-silence. After five major collections, Cope has received only piecemeal critical attention, mostly confined to book reviews. This is the first in-depth study of her poetry. Drawing on Cope's published work, archival material and correspondence, Rory Waterman considers her main collections, her works for children and her uncollected poems, with many close readings, and detailed considerations of her cultural and literary contexts and her poetic development.

Full Product Details

9781802077872

Table of Contents

Reviews

‘Given the overnight popularity with which [Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis] was greeted (albeit not in all quarters), it is also remarkable that Rory Waterman’s is the first critical study of her work. As well as submitting individual poems to the fine scrutiny of his jeweller’s loupe, he is also able deftly to bring in and, if necessary, rebut earlier assessments of her work in the reviews it received.’ N. S. Thompson, PN Review ‘Waterman’s book does well at situating Cope in her literary and historical contexts. His expertise on Larkin and Causley makes for some illuminating comparisons, and he usefully flags the connection between “Goldfish Nation” in Serious Concerns (1992) and Heathcote Williams’s Whale Nation (1988): popular at the time, much less visible now.’ Noreen Masud, Times Literary Supplement

'Given the overnight popularity with which [Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis] was greeted (albeit not in all quarters), it is also remarkable that Rory Waterman's is the first critical study of her work. As well as submitting individual poems to the fine scrutiny of his jeweller's loupe, he is also able deftly to bring in and, if necessary, rebut earlier assessments of her work in the reviews it received.' N. S. Thompson, PN Review 'Waterman's book does well at situating Cope in her literary and historical contexts. His expertise on Larkin and Causley makes for some illuminating comparisons, and he usefully flags the connection between ""Goldfish Nation"" in Serious Concerns (1992) and Heathcote Williams's Whale Nation (1988): popular at the time, much less visible now.' Noreen Masud, Times Literary Supplement

"'Given the overnight popularity with which [Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis] was greeted (albeit not in all quarters), it is also remarkable that Rory Waterman's is the first critical study of her work. As well as submitting individual poems to the fine scrutiny of his jeweller's loupe, he is also able deftly to bring in and, if necessary, rebut earlier assessments of her work in the reviews it received.' N. S. Thompson, PN Review 'Waterman's book does well at situating Cope in her literary and historical contexts. His expertise on Larkin and Causley makes for some illuminating comparisons, and he usefully flags the connection between ""Goldfish Nation"" in Serious Concerns (1992) and Heathcote Williams's Whale Nation (1988): popular at the time, much less visible now.' Noreen Masud, Times Literary Supplement"

Author Information

Rory Waterman is Senior Lecturer in English and Creative Writing at Nottingham Trent University.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available