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

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

I wrote about Maror and Adama, Lavie Tidhar's first two novels in his epic trilogy of Israel's criminal underworld, in the TLS

Really excited about my event with James Cook at the Margate Literary Festival on Sat 21st Oct at 2pm. We'll be playing songs from James' memoir In Her Room as well as readings from the book. Expect music from the Beach Boys, Beatles, REM & Flamingoes. FREE tickets here

Twinkind by William Viney (himself an identical twin) is a refreshingly partisan, sumptuously illustrated book about the cultural and social significance of twins. Here's my review in the Spectator