• Poor Cow by Nell Dunn
  • Poor Cow by Nell Dunn
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Poor Cow

A Virago Modern Classic
  • Author
    • Nell Dunn
£10.99
£10.99

Anticipated publication date

Jan 22, 2026

We will deliver the product within a reasonable period of time following the publication date

The publication date is an estimated date only and is subject to change.

We anticipate that the book will be published on this date. However, should the estimated publication date change for whatever reason, we will notify you within a reasonable period of time.
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

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
  • Published: Jan 22 2026
  • ISBN: 9780349020853
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Press Reviews

  • Margaret Drabble

    Touching, truthful and fresh . . . written with an unselfconscious elegance that conceals its craft . . . A tour de force

  • Ali Smith

    Guardian
    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
  • Paris Review
    Nell Dunn's hilarious, heartbreaking Poor Cow, about a single mother in sixties London
  • Independent
    It was Nell's interest in the women of the working class that made her work truly radical