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So Farewell Then: The Untold Life of Peter Cook
Caustic and cruel but effortlessly witty, Peter Cook was one of the most significant influences on British comedy in the last half-century as well as one of the prime architects of the satire boom of the 1960s. He achieved fame through the comedy sketch show Not Only But Also , where he starred alongside Dudley Moore. While the responsibility of being regarded as a comic guru could have weighed heavily upon his shoulders, the one thing Peter always refused adamantly was to take himself or his career seriously. Wendy E. Cook met Peter in the early 1960s; they soon married, and they lived together during the most explosive time in Peter's amazing career. But as Peter fell deeper into drinking, Wendy eventually moved away with their children, and later divorced her husband. Now, more than 30 years after their separation and more than a decade after his death, Wendy has broken her long silence. This is her take on the Peter Cook few have seen, and the life of one of Britain’s most noted comedic geniuses.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published April 28, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 7, 2022
(from here)
Good evening.
There is really only one thing wrong with Peter Cook: so farewell then (the untold life of Peter C00k), and it is the title.
This should really be called My Life With Peter Cook. Because it is the autobiography of his first wife, though focusing on the years of their marriage, not a biography of Cook. As a result, he is a huge presence in the book, but not the centre of it. Wendy is the centre. This is not a bad thing, except that it may not meet readers' expectations, and I think this is reflected in reviews on GoodReads and places like it. Hence my comments about the title (though it's easy enough to see why the title was chosen -- Peter is why you buy the book).
It is actually a quite interesting book.
Why?
Exactly because Peter is why you buy the book. It is a glimpse of being at the edge of great fame. Wendy met an incredible range of people (I won't bother to mention all the names), but few were there specifically to see her. She chose (or convinced herself) to be the support person, cooking amazing food, decorating houses, raising children. But all the time she was aware that Peter was why she was there. Peter paid the bills, Peter opened the doors, and Peter shut the doors and sometimes refused the pay the bills..
One thing it does I think better than other material I've read about Cook is evoke the way it was to live, rather than perform or build a career. The book is not about acting and writing, it's about dinner parties and finding houses and trying to find meaning in a life built around someone else -- someone who often had other things, including women, on his mind. We get stories of infidelity on both sides, a lot of pages trying to work out what made Cook the way he was, and quite a bit of gardening and at least one useful recipe. Dudley Moore comes out quite well, if equally unsure about what he wanted from life, and it's hard not to think that he would have liked to keep working with Cook, but simply could not and was smart enough to get out.
Wendy wonders what she could have done differently, tries to justify affairs, paints thumbnail portraits of their many acquaintances, and generally does a very nice job of placing Cook's work as a comic in the context of the times and of his family.
He comes across as unmoored -- as a man who did not really know how to be happy. Restlessness was a strength early on, but once security and fame had been achieved, the restlessness remained but the goals that directed it vanished, one suspects. Now and again in later years, when he was moved -- directed -- he could do great work. The impetus might come from criticism (he famously wrote 'Entirely a matter for you' in response to a comment that the show he was doing was tired and lacked bite), or a simple desire to exert himself, to prove something. But that did not happen regularly; for example, he at one time desperately hoped he would be employed to do an advertising campaign because then he would not have to work for a year -- his ambition was to not have to work. I guess it's a fine line between being able to do just what you want, and doing nothing. Constraints are essential, I think. And he had few, either coming from outside or from inside.
The book includes her opinion that Cook chose darkness. That is one I largely agree with (at least, he went there for a time). Derek and Clive (which she does not mention, it happening after their timer together) is not two men hilariously busting through stilted conventions, as some have written. It's two men mumbling rude words and hunting around in the filth, largely unsuccessfully, for jokes. I mean, it did break barriers (and it is remarkable just how far from the upright 50s Cook had come by the mid-70s), but for what? I don't mind that that stuff is rude; I mind that it is mostly not funny. Cook was smart enough he could have become a Swift for our times. He chose otherwise, and I hope he had fun.
Don't read this book if you want Peter at the centre. If you're interested in fame as a thing, the 60s as a time, Beyond the Fringe and the satire boom as a phenomenon, and how people cope or fail to cope when their lives are entwined with such things, then it's worth a look.
It is essentially Wendy's life with Peter Cook, not a life of Peter Cook.
Oh, and I wish it had more dates. Often I was wondering what year we were up to, then the book would mention the John or Bobby Kennedy assassination, say, or the Cuban missile crisis, and that would locate it in time for a few pages.
One star off for the misleading title.
Cookin'
Good evening.
There is really only one thing wrong with Peter Cook: so farewell then (the untold life of Peter C00k), and it is the title.
This should really be called My Life With Peter Cook. Because it is the autobiography of his first wife, though focusing on the years of their marriage, not a biography of Cook. As a result, he is a huge presence in the book, but not the centre of it. Wendy is the centre. This is not a bad thing, except that it may not meet readers' expectations, and I think this is reflected in reviews on GoodReads and places like it. Hence my comments about the title (though it's easy enough to see why the title was chosen -- Peter is why you buy the book).
It is actually a quite interesting book.
Why?
Exactly because Peter is why you buy the book. It is a glimpse of being at the edge of great fame. Wendy met an incredible range of people (I won't bother to mention all the names), but few were there specifically to see her. She chose (or convinced herself) to be the support person, cooking amazing food, decorating houses, raising children. But all the time she was aware that Peter was why she was there. Peter paid the bills, Peter opened the doors, and Peter shut the doors and sometimes refused the pay the bills..
One thing it does I think better than other material I've read about Cook is evoke the way it was to live, rather than perform or build a career. The book is not about acting and writing, it's about dinner parties and finding houses and trying to find meaning in a life built around someone else -- someone who often had other things, including women, on his mind. We get stories of infidelity on both sides, a lot of pages trying to work out what made Cook the way he was, and quite a bit of gardening and at least one useful recipe. Dudley Moore comes out quite well, if equally unsure about what he wanted from life, and it's hard not to think that he would have liked to keep working with Cook, but simply could not and was smart enough to get out.
Wendy wonders what she could have done differently, tries to justify affairs, paints thumbnail portraits of their many acquaintances, and generally does a very nice job of placing Cook's work as a comic in the context of the times and of his family.
He comes across as unmoored -- as a man who did not really know how to be happy. Restlessness was a strength early on, but once security and fame had been achieved, the restlessness remained but the goals that directed it vanished, one suspects. Now and again in later years, when he was moved -- directed -- he could do great work. The impetus might come from criticism (he famously wrote 'Entirely a matter for you' in response to a comment that the show he was doing was tired and lacked bite), or a simple desire to exert himself, to prove something. But that did not happen regularly; for example, he at one time desperately hoped he would be employed to do an advertising campaign because then he would not have to work for a year -- his ambition was to not have to work. I guess it's a fine line between being able to do just what you want, and doing nothing. Constraints are essential, I think. And he had few, either coming from outside or from inside.
The book includes her opinion that Cook chose darkness. That is one I largely agree with (at least, he went there for a time). Derek and Clive (which she does not mention, it happening after their timer together) is not two men hilariously busting through stilted conventions, as some have written. It's two men mumbling rude words and hunting around in the filth, largely unsuccessfully, for jokes. I mean, it did break barriers (and it is remarkable just how far from the upright 50s Cook had come by the mid-70s), but for what? I don't mind that that stuff is rude; I mind that it is mostly not funny. Cook was smart enough he could have become a Swift for our times. He chose otherwise, and I hope he had fun.
Don't read this book if you want Peter at the centre. If you're interested in fame as a thing, the 60s as a time, Beyond the Fringe and the satire boom as a phenomenon, and how people cope or fail to cope when their lives are entwined with such things, then it's worth a look.
It is essentially Wendy's life with Peter Cook, not a life of Peter Cook.
Oh, and I wish it had more dates. Often I was wondering what year we were up to, then the book would mention the John or Bobby Kennedy assassination, say, or the Cuban missile crisis, and that would locate it in time for a few pages.
One star off for the misleading title.
Cookin'
July 30, 2019
I don't usually write reviews but I feel a need to back up his x-wife, after reading many negative reviews. She did not portray Peter Cook as a monster; rather than the not so rare sort of genius who doesn't win any awards for being a stable human being. Peter was a genius and Wendy never takes that away from him. No one should expect a biograpy written by an ex-wife to be written by other than from the perspective of the writer. She gives a good bit of background on both of them, going back to childhood, to give a good understanding of what formed both of them, drew them to eachother and kept them together. Wendy also draws upon memories via quotes from other people's perspectives. I got a bit bored when she went on about fashions, but that's me. Fashion bores me.
I once invested quite a bit of money on another widows biography about a late husband, since not much was ever writen about him: Dance and Skylark by Naomi Sim, the widow of Alastair Sim. In a not very long book, she spent a good first half of the book as an autobiography just about herself. The seond half is about their life together. No insight into his childhood or anything that formed him as a person.
Wendy Cook did a far better job regarding Peter. They both cheated on eachother. I won't spoil the one physical abuse thing he did towards her. But if you're looking for a lot of gossipy dirt, it's not in here. Wendy doesn't put all of the blame on a failed marriage on Peter.
My take away is that I still respect Peter Cook as a comedic genius but I'm glad that I was never married to him. Not sure I could have been friends with Wendy either, but she wrote a damn good biography.
I once invested quite a bit of money on another widows biography about a late husband, since not much was ever writen about him: Dance and Skylark by Naomi Sim, the widow of Alastair Sim. In a not very long book, she spent a good first half of the book as an autobiography just about herself. The seond half is about their life together. No insight into his childhood or anything that formed him as a person.
Wendy Cook did a far better job regarding Peter. They both cheated on eachother. I won't spoil the one physical abuse thing he did towards her. But if you're looking for a lot of gossipy dirt, it's not in here. Wendy doesn't put all of the blame on a failed marriage on Peter.
My take away is that I still respect Peter Cook as a comedic genius but I'm glad that I was never married to him. Not sure I could have been friends with Wendy either, but she wrote a damn good biography.
March 20, 2025
I knew nothing about Peter Cook. Wrongly, I assumed he had something to do with Monty Python. The book was supposed to be about Peter Cook, but it was mostly about his first wife and her dinner parties. I loved reading about the parties, outfits, food, and some of the interesting people at the parties. Peter seemed to have an unusual gift for developing comedy. Unfortunately, loneliness (and probably a great deal of anger) led Wendy to have many affairs. Peter could never be the man that she wanted, although, the glitz and glamour were sufficient for a little while. Dudley Moore was a particularly wonderful-sounding man. I didn't know much about him either, except for the movie, "Ten." Divorce is always tougher on women, and it seemed particularly unfair back then. Given that her daughter had eczema, I bet they vaccinated her. Eczema is a major side effect of vaccines.
February 15, 2019
An interesting insight into the times, but as a biography about Peter Cook it was disappointing in its focus on Wendy, his wife.
As a comedian, Peter Cook had elements of genius, but as a man- husband, father, friend and colleague, the book portrays him as selfish, cruel, violent and self-destructive.
As a comedian, Peter Cook had elements of genius, but as a man- husband, father, friend and colleague, the book portrays him as selfish, cruel, violent and self-destructive.
December 31, 2018
It seems the story of Peter is still untold. This is all about Wendy, which is not a criticism, she's had a interesting life but don't title your book as someone else's story. Irony of it all was that actually you could feel the distance between them, was left with the sense of learning nothing at all about Peter.
January 29, 2026
I think the title is misleading as the book is more of an autobiographical book of the author. Peter Cook is interwoven throughout but I would say this is 70% not about him.
July 14, 2012
As with quite a number of the biographies I have read most have the aim of ripping that pedestal away from right underneath the feet of their subject. This is no exception. Wendy Cook, I imagine wants her story heard. It offers an insider account of the fasinating era of 60s British comedy whilst also managing to tarnish peters reputation slightly at the same time. Most knew he was an alcoholic, but i was disappointed to discover an even sadder reference to domestic violence. As the book is written by an ex wife i wasnt sure whether to take these accounts with a pinch of salt especially by one that has kept the surname all these years but as a woman I started to put myself in Wendy's shoes. If you can separate the comic genius from his dark side you'll do alright.
October 16, 2016
For a biography, this book seemed to focus a great deal on the author! Carpingly retold events of Peter Cook's life told with jaundice and eventually, new age filters. It couldn't have done more to disengage me.
July 12, 2014
Interesting but self indulgent at times
February 2, 2016
Not nearly enough about Peter Cook
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews