| 71st | Top female poets |
| Wendy Cope | |
|---|---|
| Born | 21 July 1945 Erith, Kent, England |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Nationality | British |
| Ethnicity | White |
| Education | History |
| Alma mater | St Hilda's College, Oxford |
| Period | 1980-present |
| Notable work(s) | If I Don't Know |
| Notable award(s) | Cholmondeley Award 1987 American Academy of Arts and Letters 1995 Michael Braude Award for Light Verse Whitbread Poetry Award 2001 If I Don't Know (shortlisted) |
| Spouse(s) | Lachlan Mackinnon |
Wendy Cope (born 21 July 1945) is an award-winning contemporary English poet. She read history at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She now lives in Winchester with the poet Lachlan Mackinnon.
Contents |
Cope was born in Erith, Kent, and educated at Farringtons School, Chislehurst, London. Following her graduation from St Hilda's College, Cope spent fifteen years as a primary-school teacher. In 1981, she became Arts and Reviews editor for the Inner London Education Authority magazine, Contact. Five years later she became a freelance writer and was a television critic for The Spectator magazine until 1990.
Three books of her poetry have been published, Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis in 1986, Serious Concerns in 1992 and If I Don't Know in 2001. She has also edited several anthologies of comic verse and was a judge of the 2007 Man Booker Prize.
In 1998, she was voted the listeners' choice in a BBC Radio 4 poll to succeed Ted Hughes as Poet Laureate. With Andrew Motion's term as Poet Laureate coming to an end in 2009, Cope was again widely considered a popular candidate. However, although Cope has not explicitly said she would turn down the role, she has stated that she believes the post should be discontinued.
Her portrait was painted by Peter Edwards.[1]
She also writes for The Oldie.
Despite her slight output, her books have sold well and she has attracted a popular following with her lighthearted, often comical poetry, as well as achieving literary credibility winning two awards and making an award shortlist over a fourteen year period.
She has a keen eye for the everyday, mundane aspects of English life, especially the desires, frustrations, hopes, confusions and emotions in intimate relationships. The bathetic aspect to her work has led to comparisons with Philip Larkin.
Dr Rowan Williams is a well known fan of her work, writing that: "Wendy Cope is without doubt the wittiest of contemporary English poets, and says a lot of extremely serious things".[2]
In 2008 Cope's poem "After The Lunch" was used as the lyric of the song "On Waterloo Bridge" by jazz composer and musician Jools Holland and singer Louise Marshall.
Some of her poems are written in the persona of a struggling male poet, Jake Strugnell, a slightly seedy figure from Tulse Hill. She displays her talent for parody with targets ranging from the sonnets of Sir Philip Sidney:
My true love hath my heart and I have hers
We swapped last Tuesday and felt quite elated
But now whenever one of us refers
To 'my heart' things get rather complicated.
to reducing T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land to limericks:
In April one seldom feels cheerful;
Dry stones, sun and dust make me fearful;
Clairvoyants distress me,
Commuters depress me—
Met Stetson and gave him an earful.
Her style has been compared to that of John Betjeman and Philip Larkin.
Wendy Cope (born 21 July 1945) is an English poet.
   | Peter Edwards, Portrait Artist, Fine Art, National Portrait Gallery - Peter Edwards, Portrait Artist, Fine Art, National Portrait Gallery |
| | The Oldie Magazine - The Oldie Magazine - Monday 13th July |
| | "poetryarchive.org" - Guided tour of the Archive with Dr Rowan Williams - Poetry Archive |
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