John Cooper Clarke is to publish both his autobiography, and his first new poetry collection in 37 years, publisher Picador has announced. The memoir is said by Picador to cover “an extraordinary life, filled with remarkable personalities: from Nico to Chuck Berry, from The Clash, Buzzcocks and Sex Pistols to Bernard Manning”.

Don Paterson, poetry editor at Picador, said: ‘JCC was crucially influential in getting my own generation into poetry in the first place. He gave us the courage of our non-home counties, non-RP voices, encouraged us to pay attention to politics and social history, and showed us how to articulate our anger and how to time a punchline. Most crucially, he taught us that page or no page – if it doesn’t work when it hits the air, it’s a waste of time.’

The poetry collection – the Bard of Salford’s first new collection since Ten Years in an Open Necked Shirt in 1981 - will be published as a Picador hardback in autumn 2018. The autobiography will be published as a Picador hardback in 2019, the year that Cooper Clarke will turn 70. More details