Thursday 7 March 2024

I reviewed Fervour, Toby Lloyd's debut novel of religious obsession and family implosion, in the Guardian






Friday 16 February 2024

A second Substack post from me: Thanks, I'll Take the Chair, a personal essay from a couple of years ago about therapy, trauma, and never giving up on writing. It was first published in the excellent Dodo Ink anthology Trauma: Essays on Art and Mental Health (2021). Read it for free here





Monday 5 February 2024

No one does love songs in age better than Howard Jacobson. Here's my verdict on his new novel, What Will Survive of Us, in the Literary Review



Thursday 11 January 2024

I loved Ruvani Ranasinha's Hanif Kureishi: Writing the Self, one of the best biographies of last year (or any year). Here's my review in the Spectator



Friday 5 January 2024

I will be reprising our excellent Margate Bookie event with my brother James Cook on Friday 2nd Feb 6-7.30pm at the legendary Soho Poly venue on Riding House Street. 

We'll be playing songs from James' memoir In Her Room: How Music Helped me Connect With My Autistic Daughter, along with readings from the book. Expect music from Beach Boys, Beatles, REM, our old band Flamingoes, and an exploration of autism and its relationship with music, followed by a Q&A. 

Tickets are £7 with the first drink free! Book here





So I've started a Substack for 2024. OVERCOOKED: Miscellaneous meditations on books, music, literary life and much else in between. Expect a new essay every month; some from the archive, but mainly new.

The first piece on literary posterity, The Kind Mistress: Posterity's Warm Embrace, is free to read here






Tuesday 12 December 2023

I reviewed Yasunari Kawabata's sublime 'lost' novel The Rainbow (translated into English for the first time by Haydn Trowell) for Review 31's Books of the Year 2023. Read the round-up here