Wendy Cope

Wendy Cope was born in Kent, England. She attended the Farrington School and read history at Oxford University. She spent 15 years as a primary school teacher in London before becoming a freelance writer and poet. Her debut collection of poems, Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis (1986), was a wry look at contemporary relationships. Her subsequent collections, including Serious Concerns (1992) and If I Don't Know (2001), confirmed her reputation as a classic English humorist. She has also edited several poetry anthologies, including Heaven on Earth: 101 Happy Poems (2001). She has been a television critic for The Spectator magazine and a judge of the 2007 Man Booker Prize. She was made an OBE in 2010.