Book review: What am I Doing Here? by Liz Cowley

She puts into words, and in this case rhyme, all those fears, foibles and frustrations that make up everyday life for women all over the world. And let’s face it, the female of the species is a complicated creature...ask any man! It’s two years since Cowley, a former advertising copywriter, published A Red Dress, her first book of witty and wise poetry which stole thousands of hearts, took top spot on Amazon for humorous verse and was turned into a successful show in Dublin. And now she’s back with more of her wry gems, digging deep into every aspect of a woman’s lot from bringing up children, waiting in for a plumber who never arrives and coping with divorce, to handling senior moments and learning to use a computer. Cowley knows a thing or two about the ways and wiles of women and these everyday, easy-to-read and entertaining poems tap into hidden corners of their psychedelic psyches. There’s the perfect poetic perspective here for anyone who’s ever dealt with a teenage tantrum, taken umbrage at a troublesome stepchild or railed at one of those irritatingly impersonal round-robin letters. Yes, no-one and nothing escapes the all-observing eye of Liz Cowley... Take Moaning Minnie – we’ve all met her: ‘There’s always a crisis or problem, But one that she simply can’t see, If only she’d ever admit it, And say that ‘The problem is me’.’ Then there are the Baby Talk mums who speak ‘Jubbly Bubliboo’ to their newborns, the dreaded self-help seminars – ‘Your chance to find out who you are!’ I can’t, well, not without a bar’ – and, last not but not least, the boring charity dinner when you secretly ‘long to be making an omelette, And watching a soap on TV’. There is plenty of insecurity here as well – when the dread of losing love becomes greater than the love itself, facing the realities of widowhood and discovering that your husband has left you for another – all demonstrating that simple but subtle verse can convey complex human emotion. Many of the poems harbour a sting in the tail but all are delightfully worldly wise and brimming with knowledge, sympathy, humour and true affection. A breath of fresh air for world-weary girls and a voyage of discovery for baffled males... (Bene Factum Publishing, hardback, £9.99) * A selection of sketches from What am I Doing Here? will be performed by acclaimed actress Cyrena Hayes Byrne at The Winchester House Club, Putney, London, on October 19, 20 and 21, at Bighton, Winchester, on October 22 and St Austell, Cornwall on October 23. Each show will help to raise cash for The Chelsea Pensioners, Elizabeth Finn Care and Leukaemia Research.