Pam Ayres on Animals

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I live my life in the hope of coming up with good ideas, of finding myself in a situation, of reading an article, of overhearing a fragment of conversation which sparks off the magic feeling of, 'That's a good idea. I could do something with that'," she explains. For BBC Radio, Pam has recorded six series of Ayres On the Air for BBC Radio 4, she is a regular guest on Just A Minute, and she is one of the comparatively few guests who have appeared twice on Desert Island Discs, the first time in 1979, and again in 2018. Having said all that, this collection is hugely enjoyable, and it’s been great bedtime reading at the end of yet another pandemic day. Not only funny and giving plenty of opportunity for reader identification but also poignant and moving at times. Thank you Pam! In March 2021 a new edition of Pam’s book, With These Hands, was re-issued by Ebury Press/Penguin Books. First published in 1997, this book includes many of Pam’s most popular earlier poems including Yes I’ll Marry You My Dear, Will I Have To Be Sexy at Sixty, The Wonderbra, and How Can That Be My Baby?

If you don’t want to eat meat, then I respect that very much. But this is such a better way of doing it than going into a supermarket and buying any old lump of meat that might have come from Kazakhstan.” I think we should all have smaller families: we should all just replace ourselves. Nobody wants to talk about that because it’s such a controversial subject; but if we limited the size of our families, we wouldn’t need so much food and we wouldn’t need to make this horrible slime in laboratories – but that doesn’t fit in with everybody’s culture. I’ve got two sons and I’ve loved having two sons and they were enough. I’m one of a family of six but times have changed since then.” I do now have a beautiful grandchild, Arthur,” she grins. “After my performances, I do a book-signing where people come up and have a word. They always used to ask, ‘Have you got any grandchildren yet?’ and say things I thought were rather sugary and saccharine. One lady said, ‘Oh, you wait! It’s like falling in love.’ And I thought, ‘Where’s the exit?’ It didn’t seem like me at all.Three poems in particular always really affect people and you see them being visibly moved. September Song, about the empty nest when children leave home; Pollen on the Wind, about moving out of the family home, as I've done myself, and leaving memories and a garden which you've poured love into and where family pets are buried; and Tippy Tappy Feet, about the death of a pet." I didn’t like the Grand National very much because I hated to see the horses hurt. I know it’s improved now and safer, which I’m glad about, but I always dreaded the green screens going up and the shot that rings out. I do love this poem, though. It’s one of my favourites.”

Much-loved poet and broadcaster Pam Ayres has brought together all the verse she has written about animals over the last five decades for a wonderful new book of poetry. Hugely," she replies. "It's a drug, of course, this performing. You can never come off it. It doesn't take long to get hooked. It's amazing to feel you can touch people just with words, and arranging them in a certain way. (They) have an amazing effect on an audience. Pam is the author of several best-selling poetry collections, including The Works, With These Hands, Surgically Enhanced, You Made Me Late Again!, and Up In The Attic.

I’ve loved animals for as long as I can remember,” she says. “When I got my first rabbit, I was so thrilled; then I longed for a dog; and then I longed for a horse. I liked being with animals and looking after them and making them comfortable. It’s just the way I’m cut out.” Of course, those performances are enlivened by her distinctive accent, which happily she's never seriously considered changing. Ayres has long been famed for delivering entertaining performances of her work. Does she still enjoy that? I used to think people expected me only to be funny, so I didn't touch on serious issues," she explains. "Now I love the fact poetry can make difficult feelings accessible. From her very first encounter with a friendly golden Labrador at just three years old, Pam Ayres has been enchanted by animals. Now, for the first time, in this beautiful new illustrated work, she has gathered together her life's work of poems, new and old, dedicated to her love of them.

We’ve teamed up with Ebury Press to offer this fabulous book prize. For your chance to WIN one of FOUR copies of the wonderful Pam Ayres on Animals simply enter your details below. Pam had appeared three times for HM The Queen – at the Silver Jubilee Royal Variety Performance in 1977, at a Royal Gala Charity Reception at St. James Palace in 1996, when Pam, as the only entertainer, performed part of her solo stage show, and finally at Sandringham Women’s Institute in 2004, when the Queen attended in her capacity as President of the Sandringham WI. Subsequently, Pam was honoured to be awarded the MBE in Queen’s Birthday Honours of 2004.In June 2022, at the grand age of 75, Pam was delighted to appear in the Glastonbury Festival. Also in June, as part of filming for her Channel 5 TV series about the Cotswolds, Pam had the opportunity to interview HRH The Prince of Wales, now King Charles, at his Highgrove country home to talk about his garden, and their shared love of wildlife and natural history. The interview featured in Pam’s second TV series for Channel 5, The Cotswolds & Beyond, which was originally broadcast in Autumn 2022. I never get used to the thrill of hearing people roaring with laughter or being moved to tears by something I've written. So many say to me after one of my shows, 'God, I haven't laughed like that in years'. Generally, I try to dance lightly over the top of controversial subjects and I steer clear of politics because it polarises people. I'd like to be remembered as someone who brought laughter into a fairly sombre world." While she's thought of as a writer of humorous poetry, Ayres says not all the work she pens is funny. I considered changing it briefly at one point, only because people seemed more focused on that than my writing, but to do so would have felt disloyal to my family and the area where I grew up. It's part of my identity."