Some post-Xmas reading from me: a last Substack for 2024. Aide-Mémoires: The Art of Not Forgetting. Read it for free here

I enjoyed writing about Sarah Manguso's coruscating novel, Liars, for Review 31's Books of the Year 2024. Read here

Here's my review of Duets, Scratch Books' collection of thrilling, unsettling, ambitious co-written short stories, in the Guardian

I wrote about the Booker Prize, Samantha Harvey's triumphant 2024 win, as well as The Bee Sting, Prophet Song and pain and pleasure-principle novels. Read The Wrong Paul on Substack for free here

I reviewed Andrew Miller's excellent new novel The Land in Winter, set during the Big Freeze of 1962-3, in the TLS

I wrote about the strange dream that was 1970s TV, and falling for James Bond when ITV screened Goldfinger for the first time. Read my latest Substack, I Must Be Dreaming, here

I reviewed The Catchers, Xan Brooks's immersive tale of music-biz exploitation set in the 1920s Mississippi Delta, in the Literary Review

'Julia was my first love. It happened in the autumn of 1984'. I wasn't planning on posting any fiction on Substack, but here's the opening of a novella set forty years ago this month. Read The Angel's Reply (for free) here

I wrote about Entitlement, Rumaan Alam's (far superior) follow-up to his 2020 hit Leave the World Behind, in the Spectator

Here's my Substack essay for August. Doubling Up: The Treatment of Twins in Literature, Film & TV (first published in the TLS Jan 2022). Read it for free here

Join me and my brother, James Cook, at the Stroud Literary Festival on Saturday 9th November at 8pm, for readings and live music from his memoir, In Her Room. Tickets here

Here's my latest Substack piece. What Lies Beneath: an essay about chronic pain and performing the well body. Read it for free here

I wrote about Benjamin Myers' wonderfully entertaining, Scarborough-set new novel, Rare Singles, in the Literary Review

Here's my review of Austin Duffy's tremendously tense and unsettling Troubles novel, Cross, set at the time of the '94 ceasefire, in the Guardian

I reviewed Michael Deagler's consistently wise and funny debut novel, Early Sobrieties, in the Spectator

Here's my Substack essay for flaming June. How I discovered the peerless fiction of Yasunari Kawabata in the most unlikely of places. Read it for free here

Tom Lamont's debut novel, Going Home, is a moving investigation into what it means to be a father and a son. Here's my review in the TLS

This month's Substack is an essay about discovering (being saved by) Prince as a lonely teenager in the late 80s. Read Sometimes It Snows In May for free here

Here's my Substack piece for April, a personal essay about my parents' divorce and growing up in the 1970s: The Art of Escapism - How James Bond Can Help you Survive a Parental Divorce. Read it for free here

I reviewed Whale Fall, Elizabeth O' Connor's visceral, politically-engaged novel set on a remote island off the Welsh coast in 1938, for the Guardian

My Substack essay for March is a piece about the pleasures and perils of having a favourite writer, through the prism of Hanif Kureishi's novella, The Nothing. Read Épater La Bourgeoisie for free here

Here's my take on Adelle Waldman's new novel, Help Wanted, her follow up to the sparkling The Love Affairs of Nathanial P from 2013, in the TLS

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

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

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

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

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