I have bought all of Wendy Cope's books so I'm not one of the guilty ones she refers to, but I'd like to put forward an alternative viewpoint here:
She says that when people tell her, "I liked your poem so much that I sent copies of it to all my friends", "I'm supposed to be pleased."
I would be pleased if someone told me that, and to hell with the copyright! It's a delightful compliment. Last year Mary (McLean) and I went to see an outside performance in Cambridge and Wendy didn't engage with her audience at all, or even thank them for coming along, nor could she use a microphone to save her life. I chatted with her at an Oldie lunch once and she was quite grumpy. My daughter was with me and was really shocked.
I love Wendy's work but I'm afraid all I see on a personal front is one of those Grumpy Old Women. She could do with lightening up to match her light verse! Being a poet is not just about selling books and making money. Years ago, long before the Internet was what it is now, one of my poems was "ripped off" but hey! people liked it enough to stick it up on their noticeboards at work - probably not with my name on, in many cases, but so what?
Like I said, just another way of looking at this...
Jayne
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