Wendy Cope: ‘My secret love is Strictly Come Dancing’

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/dec/13/wendy-cope-this-much-i-know

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Word of mouth is the most important thing that sells books, but you need a few mouths to get the words going. I was 40 when I was first published. I was a single, somewhat lonely, primary school teacher, and suddenly the phone never stopped ringing. It was quite a surprise.

It took me a while to realise what I wanted to do with my life. I used to say I wanted to be a writer when I grew up. At seven, I had an exercise book that I’d write stories in. But then I forgot all about it. It only came back to me in my late 20s after being in therapy.

Psychoanalysis definitely did help me. Nowadays, it’s conventional wisdom that psychoanalysis doesn’t work. But actually, it did. It was about getting in touch with powerful feelings that I had been suppressing, and not quite knowing what to do with them. I then knew I had to channel them into my work.

I’m not a tremendously sociable person. When I moved in with my husband in 1994 I had to learn to live with someone. I didn’t write much for a bit and found that quite difficult. I had to learn to shut myself away and get enough time for writing. But he understood that, because he’s a writer, too.

It was only last year that we got married. Lachlan [Mackinnon] and I had been together for 19 years and marriage was one of those things we finally got around to. We kept meaning to, but it never happened.

One of my earliest memories is the day after my sister had been born. She was coming home from hospital and there was a pretty carry-cot all laid out on the landing ready for her. I came in from the garden in my muddy shoes and jumped into it. I was two and a half.

Giving up smoking is my most difficult achievement. After I quit, people said: “Goodness, if you can give up, anyone can.” It was tough, but I’m so glad I did it.

My secret love is Strictly Come Dancing. I think Bruno Tonioli is very intelligent – he talks well, and has a very wide range of reference, and he uses very good similes.

Just because you write a poem, it doesn’t mean you have to publish it. If I’m just writing because I happen to have had an idea, I’m completely free to write it, fiddle around with it, take as long as I like, and then I can decide quite a long time afterwards what I want to do with it. There’s a freedom in that.

I’ve never quite recovered from the hostility from other poets towards me around the time Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis was published [in 1986]. They didn’t like the way I suddenly appeared on the scene and all the publicity the book got.

The best piece of advice I’ve ever been given is a quotation from George Herbert: “Dare to be true.” It’s particularly good advice for a writer.

I’m happier now than I’ve ever been. The only sadness is that there’s limited time ahead. I’d like to live for ever.

Life, Love and The Archers by Wendy Cope (Two Roads, £16.99). To order a copy for £12.99, go to bookshop.theguardian.com. It is also available as an ebook