Poor Cow
A Virago Modern Classic
Published on 22. January 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
160 pages
978-0-349-02085-3 (ISBN)
Description
THE BESTSELLLING CLASSIC OF SIXTIES LONDON
'Touching, truthful and fresh - a tour de force' MARGARET DRABBLE
'Hilarious, heartbreaking' PARIS REVIEW
'Her art is ignited by voice' ALI SMITH, GUARDIAN
'Exuberantly alive' SUNDAY TIMES
To think when I was a kid I planned to conquer the world and if anyone saw me now they'd say, 'She's had a rough night, poor cow.'
Joy - twenty-one, bleach-blonde, a head full of dreams - walks down Fulham Broadway in a maternity dress and high suede shoes, carrying her week-old baby. Her husband Tom is a thief and on the proceeds of a job they move to a luxury flat in Ruislip, all new lino and fitted carpets. Then Tom is sent to prison, leaving Joy to move in with Auntie Emm - and to grapple with motherhood, modelling and unreliable men. Exuberant, earthy and tender, Poor Cow was a revelatory portrait of sixties London life.
INTRODUCED BY MARGARET DRABBLE
'Touching, truthful and fresh - a tour de force' MARGARET DRABBLE
'Hilarious, heartbreaking' PARIS REVIEW
'Her art is ignited by voice' ALI SMITH, GUARDIAN
'Exuberantly alive' SUNDAY TIMES
To think when I was a kid I planned to conquer the world and if anyone saw me now they'd say, 'She's had a rough night, poor cow.'
Joy - twenty-one, bleach-blonde, a head full of dreams - walks down Fulham Broadway in a maternity dress and high suede shoes, carrying her week-old baby. Her husband Tom is a thief and on the proceeds of a job they move to a luxury flat in Ruislip, all new lino and fitted carpets. Then Tom is sent to prison, leaving Joy to move in with Auntie Emm - and to grapple with motherhood, modelling and unreliable men. Exuberant, earthy and tender, Poor Cow was a revelatory portrait of sixties London life.
INTRODUCED BY MARGARET DRABBLE
Reviews / Votes
Her art is ignited by voice, especially by voice more usually given no societal, literary or aesthetic power or space but whose authority, as you hear it, is unquestionable * Guardian * It was Nell's interest in the women of the working class that made her work truly radical * Independent * Touching, truthful and fresh . . . written with an unselfconscious elegance that conceals its craft . . . A tour de force Nell Dunn's hilarious, heartbreaking Poor Cow, about a single mother in sixties London * Paris Review *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Little, Brown Book Group
Dimensions
Height: 125 mm
Width: 198 mm
Thickness: 11 mm
Weight
134 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-349-02085-3 (9780349020853)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Nell Dunn (1936) is an English playwright, screenwriter and author. She was educated at a convent which she left at the age of fourteen.
She shot to fame with Poor Cow (1967) and Up the Junction (1963), both of which became successful films. Up the Junction won the John Llewellyn Rhys prize.
She shot to fame with Poor Cow (1967) and Up the Junction (1963), both of which became successful films. Up the Junction won the John Llewellyn Rhys prize.