Cooper, Clarke, John – The Bell Bookshop

What

Emma — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A riotous poetry collection from the Poet Laureate of Punk and the Bard of Salford, Dr John Cooper Clarke.

Nothing short of dazzling’ – Alex Turner, musician and frontman of the Arctic Monkeys
‘A big-hearted poet of boundless humour and unmistakable style’ – Kit Fan, Guardian

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.
_{John Cooper Clarke’s book WHAT was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 05-02-2024.}

What

Emma — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

‘Nothing short of dazzling’ – Alex Turner, musician and frontman of the Arctic Monkeys
‘A big-hearted poet of boundless humour and unmistakable style’ – Kit Fan, Guardian

John Cooper Clarke’s book WHAT was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 05-02-2024.

Luckiest Guy Alive

Emma — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The godfather of British performance poetry – Daily Telegraph

The Luckiest Guy Alive is the first new book of poetry from Dr John Cooper Clarke for several decades – and a brilliant, scabrous, hilarious collection from one of our most beloved and influential writers and performers. From the ‘Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman’ to a hymn to the seductive properties of the pie – by way of hand-grenade haikus, machine-gun ballads and a meditation on the loss of Bono’s leather pants – The Luckiest Guy Alive collects stunning set pieces, tried-and-tested audience favourites and brand new poems to show Cooper Clarke still effortlessly at the top of his game.

Cooper Clarke’s status as the ‘Emperor of Punk Poetry’ is certainly confirmed here, but so is his reputation as a brilliant versifier, a poet of vicious wit and a razor-sharp social satirist. Effortlessly immediate and contemporary, full of hard-won wisdom and expert blindsidings, it’s easy to see why the good Doctor has continued to inspire several new generations of performers from Alex Turner to Plan B: The Luckiest Guy Alive shows one of the most compelling poets of the age on truly exceptional form.

‘John Cooper Clarke is one of Britain’s outstanding poets. His anarchic punk poetry has thrilled people for decades … 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