Victoria Mary Clarke, the widow of the late Shane MacGowan, has recently opened up about potential plans to release a book of MacGowan's previously unpublished songs.

In a heartfelt interview with The Guardian, Mary Clarke spoke of the some of the songs MacGowan wrote, saying: "It would sound really boring to me, the same couple of chords over and over again for six hours. And some of his lyrics seemed quite cheesy".

The author and artist said of her late husband's revered romantic classic 'A Rainy Night in Soho', that it seemed "really cheesy at first"

She continued saying "It was only when I heard the finished thing that it made sense".

In terms of the meaning of the track Clark says that 'Rainy Night in Soho' was actually an homage to Frank Sinatra: “He wrote it for Frank because he wanted him to sing it. And possibly the Soho that he had in mind could be the one in New York.

However not every song MacGowan wrote about his wife were flattering, with Clarke saying “He wrote a song called 'That Woman’s Got Me Drinking'. That was pretty mean. He definitely had a way of using songs to get back at you.”

He could also use them to be extremely romantic. The song 'Victoria' might reference the fling that Clarke had with Van Morrison while the couple were on one of their separations (“Victoria, left me in opium euphoria/With a fat monk singing Gloria”), but it still ends on a romantic note: “Someday I’ll put my pipe aside and hit the road … to find my girl with green eyes.”

However in this interview, Clarke not only revealed the meanings behind published songs by the late Shane MacGowan but also hinted that she might release a book of MacGowan's unpublished works. “I guess at some point we will be doing a book of his unpublished stuff because there are quite a lot of unpublished songs.”

There has been a fan campaign to push Shane MacGowan's most well known track 'Fairytale of New York', to reach the Christmas number 1 spot, a feat which it never achieved upon release, coming second to the Pet Shop Boys' 'Always On My Mind' in 1987.

The track has gone number 1 twice in Ireland, once upon release, and once in December 2023 after MacGowan's passing. Speaking on the campaign Victoria Mary Clarke said "It would be nice wouldn't it? It should be number 1. It absolutely should".