Life, Love and The Archers

Critics Review

• funny, fearless and unflinchingly truthful

  Times Literary Supplement - Books of the Years 2014

• thought-provoking and inspiring

  Independent on Sunday - Books of the Year 2014

• delightful… Behind her fluid style and droll wit emerges a woman who was in analysis five times a week for ten years, and who wondered what she was doing wrong when she read about single women enjoying their freedom with the company of supportive friends. A marvellously honest and entertaining compilation of her wonderful writing.

  Daily Mail (Must Reads)

• entertaining and moving, with appeal far beyond stalwart Cope fans… Life, Love and The Archers begins poignantly with hints of humour … with the final section prompting several mortifying laugh-out-loud-on-public-transport incidents

  Independent on Sunday

• This anthology of prose from Britain’s best-loved poet is wonderful, wistful and has some wisecracking one-liners

  Tatler

• This collection of her prose reveals a more serious Wendy Cope… What holds the book together is an unflinching honesty – about her depression, her finances, her love life. And, most of all, about poetry… Cope’s truth-telling about her own life may disturb some admirers, but the occasional bleakness is warmed and illuminated by shafts of comic sunlight… Is it any wonder that so many of us love her?

  Mail on Sunday

• A wonderful mix of poet Wendy Cope’s prose, uncovered from the archives of The British Library. Find hidden gems such as extracts from an abandoned memoir and unpublished essays Billy Graham, smoking addiction and more. The book also comprises published prose, including a hilarious collection of TV reviews written for the Spectator in the 80s. Perfect to dip into over the holidays.

  Mumsnet

• In the end, as she says ruefully, “What will survive of us will be quoted out of context.” But at least Wendy Cope will be quoted with delight

  The Times

• a sort of autobiography in fragments. She is as uncompromising here in her insistence on telling the truth; the honesty about her love life that marks her poetry finds a corresponding honesty about the practical business of life… It is remarkable how much Cope writes, often to comic effect, about time-killing pursuits which free us of anxiety – darts, sudoku, comfort eating, even, as the book’s title suggests, listening to the Archers.

  Times Literary Supplement

• Her writing is always witty and insightful

  Good Housekeeping - Best non-fiction book of the month, December 2014

• Poet Wendy Cope’s first book of prose is like an extended conversation with an old friend. You find a huge amount in common, laugh every five minutes, enjoy a good moan and end up counting your blessings; not least among them the joyous fact that “we’ll never be as old as Mick Jagger”… Irreverent, sensible, with a keen eye for the absurd and the pretentious, Cope is a boon companion

  The Oldie

• The no-nonsense honesty, sharp insight and humour of her poetry are evident in her prose too, as is the deceptive simplicity of her language: never overwrought, it has a thoughtful precision and unselfconscious elegance… The writer’s life … is portrayed with her signature blend of self-deprecation and wit

  The Lady

• It is, very often, wonderful… the latter parts of this book are joyous

  The Tablet

• A pleasure to read. The writing is crisp and to the point, eloquent but not flowery. Cope never patronises her readers: she trusts them to understand, to think about what she is saying: the pieces are thought-provoking and genuinely relevant in today’s world.

  Bookbag

• [A] highly enjoyable collection . . . Cope fans and poetry lovers will find much to relish here, as will the general reader

  The Good Book Guide