Description
This is a memoir as wry, funny, moving and vivid as its inimitable subject himself. This book will be a joy for both lifelong fans and for a whole new generation.
John Cooper Clarke is a phenomenon: Poet Laureate of Punk, rock star, fashion icon, TV and radio presenter, social and cultural commentator. At 5 feet 11 inches (32in chest, 27in waist), in trademark dark suit, dark glasses, with dark messed-up hair and a mouth full of gold teeth, he is instantly recognizable. As a writer his voice is equally unmistakable and his own brand of slightly sick humour is never far from the surface.
I Wanna Be Yours covers an extraordinary life, filled with remarkable personalities: from Nico to Chuck Berry, from Bernard Manning to Linton Kwesi Johnson, Elvis Costello to Gregory Corso, Gil Scott Heron, Mark E. Smith and Joe Strummer, and on to more recent fans and collaborators Alex Turner, Plan B and Guy Garvey. Interspersed with stories of his rock and roll and performing career, John also reveals his boggling encyclopaedic take on popular culture over the centuries: from Baudelaire and Edgar Allan Poe to Pop Art, pop music, the movies, fashion, football and showbusiness – and much, much more, plus a few laughs along the way.
A Sonnet to Science 
The Wren-Boys 
The Big Little Poem Series Numbers 27-32 
The Skies Above My Eyes 
Poems 
Who Is Mary Sue? 
The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova 
The Moon Before Morning 
Aeneid. Book VI 
The Last Poems of Jules Laforgue 
Strong Words 
Will Burns 
Soho 
Is This a Poem?: What makes a poem, and how YOU can write one 
The Silvering 
Stressed, Unstressed: Classic Poems to Ease the Mind (Edited by Jonathan Bate) 
With These Hands