Wendy Cope, OBE (born 21 July 1945) is a contemporary English poet. She read history at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She now lives in Ely with the poet Lachlan Mackinnon. Read full biography of Wendy Cope →
Bloody Christmas, here again, let us raise a loving cup, peace on earth, goodwill to men, and make them do the washing up.
I was single for a long time and felt very much alone in the world, and talk of family values upset me very much at that phase in my life, because I... →
I think it's a question which particularly arises over women writers: whether it's better to have a happy life or a good supply of tragic... →
I have a theory that if you've got the kind of parents who want to send you to boarding school, you're probably better off at boarding school.
I've never been more famous than I was, suddenly, in 1986.
I always tell students that writing a poem and publishing it are two quite separate things, and you should write what you have to write, and if... →
The interesting thing is that you don't often meet a poet who doesn't have a sense of humour, and some of them do keep it out of their poems... →
I like a quiet life.
Bloody men are like bloody buses - you wait for about a year and as soon as one approaches your stop two or three others appear.
I like buying clothes, especially as I get a tax-deductible allowance.
I've said what I'm prepared to say in my poems, and then journalists think that you're going to tell them a whole lot more.
Possibly I've become less funny as I've been happier.
In my case, the long gaps between my books have got quite a lot to do with lack of confidence. A lot of the time when I'm not writing I start... →
Wendy Cope, OBE (born 21 July 1945) is a contemporary English poet. She read history at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She now lives in Ely with the poet Lachlan Mackinnon.