WHAT

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What to expect

Read by the author, John Cooper Clarke.

'Nothing short of dazzling' – Alex Turner

Dr John Cooper Clarke's dazzling, scabrous voice has reverberated through pop culture for decades, his influence on generations of performance poets and musicians plain for all to see. In WHAT, the original 'People's Poet' comes storming out of the gate with an uproarious new collection, reminding us why he is one of Britain's most beloved writers and performers. James Brown, John F. Kennedy, Jesus Christ: nobody is safe from the punk rocker's acerbic pen – and that's just the first poem.

Hot on the heels of The Luckiest Guy Alive and his sprawling, encyclopaediac memoir I Wanna Be Yours, the good Doctor returns with his most trenchant collection of poems yet. Vivid and alive, with a sensitivity only a writer with a life as varied and extraordinary as Cooper Clarke's could summon, WHAT is an exceptional collection from one of our foremost satirists.

Critics Review

  • A big-hearted poet of boundless humour and unmistakable style

    Guardian

  • A rhymer to be reckoned with . . . with a panache contemporary poets should aspire to and respect

    Sunday Times

  • A primordial gift for language

    Financial Times

  • I say to people, have you heard of John Cooper Clarke and if they say, yes, yeah he’s an absolute genius and you just go, ‘oh – ok, you’ve saved me a lot of time

    Steve Coogan

  • John Cooper Clarke uses words like Chuck Berry uses guitar riffs melody and anger, humour and disdain in equal measure. He’s the real deal, really funny and really caustic, the velvet voice of discontent.

    Kate Moss

  • John Cooper Clarke is one of Britain’s outstanding poets. His anarchic punk poetry has thrilled people for decades and his no nonsense approach to his work and life in general has appealed to many people including myself for many years. Long may his slender frame and spiky top produce words and deeds that keep us on our toes and alive to the wonders of the world.

    Sir Paul McCartney

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