Skip to content

Scottish Poetry Library

Register/Sign in
Shopping Bag Shopping Bag
Bringing people and poems together
  • Home
  • Poetry
    • Poets
    • Poems
    • Burns Night
    • Scotland’s Makar
    • Podcasts
    • Best Scottish Poems
  • Library
    • Become a borrower
    • Catalogue
    • Collections
    • Ask a librarian
    • Copyright enquiries
  • Learning
    • Nat 5 and Higher poems
    • Dyslexia-friendly lesson plans
    • Poems in Scots for schools
    • Rannan Chloinne / Children’s Verses
    • Nua-Nòs Gaelic Resources
    • Poems in English for schools
    • Scots poems for bairns
    • Posters
  • Events
    • What’s On
    • Organising a cultural event at the SPL
    • Meeting rooms and venue hire
  • Shop
    • SPL Shop
  • About us
    • Our story
    • Our people
    • Our projects
    • FAQs
    • Company papers
    • Jobs & Volunteering
    • Find us
    • Contact us
    • Making a complaint
  • Support us
    • Become a Friend
    • Donate
  • Blog
Shopping BagShopping Bag
Ask a librarian
  • Home
  • >
  • Shop
  • >
  • WHAT By John Cooper Clarke
Donate Donate icon Ask a Librarian Ask a Librarian icon
“The Bell Jar” has been added to your basket. View basket

WHAT By John Cooper Clarke

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.”  Sunday Times bestseller.

Book type :
Paperback
Number of Pages :
64
Price :

£12.99

It looks like you are not logged in as a Friends member of Scottish Poetry Library. Did you know that, as well as supporting our work, Friends receive discount in our online Shop? Become a Friend now or login to access your Friend's discount.

Share this
Facebook
Twitter
Email

Related products

The Wickedest By Caleb Femi

£14.99

A modern epic, The Wickedest explores the institution of shoobs or house parties and their vital role within working-class communities. The poems range from classical English sonnets to experimental forms and are immersively interwoven with photographs, text messages and ephemera.

Read moreAdd to basket

Poems by Wilfred Owen

£12.99

Poems is Wilfred Owen’s only volume of poetry, first published posthumously in 1920 and edited by his friend and mentor, Siegfried Sassoon.

Read moreAdd to basket

Blossomise by Simon Armitage

£10.00

Simon Armitage, Poet Laureate, brings new perspectives and energy to a timeless poetic subject.

Read moreAdd to basket
  • Newsletter signup
  • Accessibility
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy (UK)
Scottish Poetry Library
5 Crichton's Close, Canongate
Edinburgh EH8 8DT
Tel: +44 (0)131 557 2876
© Scottish Poetry Library 2026.
The Scottish Poetry Library is a registered charity (No. SCO23311).
City of Edinburgh logo Green Arts Initiative logo Creative Scotland logo
Scottish Poetry Library
Manage Consent

To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.

We use privacy-focused tracking technologies to help us understand and improve the experience of our visitors. We track activity, not users, but you can still object to this tracking via our cookie policy.

Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
  • Manage options
  • Manage services
  • Manage {vendor_count} vendors
  • Read more about these purposes
View preferences
  • {title}
  • {title}
  • {title}