Jude Cook

Remembering Tom Stoppard: ‘Knowledge and art weren’t negotiable commodities for him’ | The Observer Get full access to the app & website:

‘Tom thought that knowledge and art weren’t negotiable commodities: there were absolute standards of good and bad.’

Richard Eyre remembers his friend, Tom Stoppard.

A late-November Substack essay from me: I wrote about creative inspiration in music and writing. Read Catch a Fire: That Michelangelo Moment for FREE here 👇: judecook.substack.com/p/catch-a-fire

A Room Above a Shop by Anthony Shapland named Hay Festival Book of the Year 2025 A Room Above a Shop by Anthony Shapland has been named Hay Festival Book of the Year 2025 after hundreds of book lovers nominated their favourite titles of the year online.

Duw duw!

I'm so pleased, and proud that this came from an open vote - so thanks to all the readers and advocates and allies who have lifted me up in the last year. Genuinely blindsided by this, and humbled. Thanks @hayfestival.bsky.social x

www.hayfestival.com/news/blog.as...

Paul McCartney stages a silent protest against AI | The Observer

Agreed. I should add most of my students are wonderful and are doing their best under difficult conditions. It's writers & musicians who should fear AI the most, not university lecturers perhaps. Read this excellent piece by John Naughton? observer.co.uk/news/columni...

Morning fellas. Just jumping in here. After teaching Creative Writing to undergrads for 8 years a lot of what Mr Battis says is correct. Many can't engage with a banana. But it is (like Dan says) a legacy of Covid rather than AI. None of my 50 students' work shows traces of AI (you can always tell).

Paul McCartney stages a silent protest against AI | The Observer

observer.co.uk/news/columni... Every writer & musician should read this. Excellent piece by John Naughton in today’s Observer.

The book, And the Walls Became the World All Around, is stood upright on a table against a blank background. The cover is facing the camera.

We are delighted to announce that the winner of the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2025 is ‘And the Walls Became the World All Around’ by Johanna Ekström and Sigrid Rausing, translated from Swedish (Sweden) by Sigrid Rausing and published by @grantabooks.bsky.social !

Delighted to announce that MALC’S BOY by Shaun Wilson will be @conduitbooks.bsky.social’s first title! Coming April 2026.

Travel on well, Jimmy Cliff. #nowplaying

Join us tonight at @burleyfisher.bsky.social for the London launch of Vanguard Editions The Carbon Arc. I'll be reading along with brilliant writers @christianaspens.bsky.social Sam Mills, Karen Krizanovich & Gareth Evans. 6.30pm-9pm (Free) Tickets here: burleyfisherbooks.com/products/lau...

Remembering Rachel Cooke | The Observer

We were shocked and saddened to read that Rachel Cooke had died. She championed Michèle Roberts' work, and her take on French Cooking for One proposed the book to the bestsellers sphere. We remember her exemplary, fearless originality and generous spirit.
observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Can’t go to this tomorrow night, alas, but it should be excellent. Blackout is one of the books of the year, a sui generis journey into silence, mixing memoir, philosophy & art criticism.

Here’s my review of @andrewgallix.bsky.social’s wonderfully irreverent debut novel, Loren Ipsum, in the print edition of today’s @theguardian.com

RIP Rachel Cooke, fellow Puffin Club member and evangelist of All the Devils Are Here, formidable critic and true believer in the power and importance of the good stuff, in whatever form it takes. I’m gutted we won’t get to talk about books again. My condolences to Rachel’s friends and family. x

Loren Ipsum by Andrew Gallix review – chronically funny satire of the literary scene Full of word games, in-jokes and grisly murders, this debut pours gleeful scorn on the pretensions of contemporary literary life

“It has a nimble wit and a punk rock attitude that is wholly addictive. Destined, as they say, to become a cult classic.” @judecook.bsky.social’s dream review of Loren Ipsum
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...

Loren Ipsum by Andrew Gallix review – chronically funny satire of the literary scene Full of word games, in-jokes and grisly murders, this debut pours gleeful scorn on the pretensions of contemporary literary life

Loren Ipsum is, by a wide margin, the most enjoyable novel I've read all year. Here's my review of @andrewgallix.bsky.social's mordantly witty debut in the Guardian. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...

The Unseen Patti Smith Never-before-seen pictures of Patti Smith’s first trip to Paris in 1976, including a pilgrimage to The Doors singer Jim Morrison’s grave.

Patti Smith: Rare And Unseen Pictures

A new photo-book memorialises Patti Smith’s first trip to Paris in 1976, including a pilgrimage to Jim Morrison’s grave. “She seemed very moved,” photographer Claude Gassian tells MOJO...

Loren Ipsum by Andrew Gallix review – chronically funny satire of the literary scene Full of word games, in-jokes and grisly murders, this debut pours gleeful scorn on the pretensions of contemporary literary life

Great review of @andrewgallix.bsky.social Loren Ipsum from @judecook.bsky.social
He captures the utter fun that comes from reading this novel.
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...

Still got it. Congratulations to David Szalay on winning the Booker Prize, most conspicuous of the prizes, for his truly excellent novel Flesh.

Many congratulations to David Szalay on winning @thebookerprizes.com 2025 with Flesh. Two wins in a row for @jonathancape.bsky.social @vintagebooks.bsky.social

My old band Flamingoes is in this month’s Mojo magazine. ‘Flamingoes and Fountains of Wayne share a taste for Superman/ rabbit mash-ups’. #Therecordisforeverman @mojomagazine.bsky.social @keithcameron2.bsky.social

So pleased to be featuring your story. Thank you for sending it our way @judecook.bsky.social #shortstory #fiction

ICYMI today we're feat. A Donkey’s Tale (or How the Two Renés Quarrelled) by Jude Cook @judecook.bsky.social #shortstory #fiction. Please click on the link and enjoy fictivedream.com/2025/11/02/a...

Delighted to have a new short story published by @fictivedream.bsky.social. Read my take on Gogol's How the Two Ivans Quarrelled here 👇

Some new short fiction from me coming tomorrow with the brilliant @fictivedream.bsky.social. Watch this space!

An October Substack from me: an essay on writing about places you've never visited. Read Into the Blue Again: Writing America for FREE here: judecook.substack.com/p/into-the-b...

Jude Cook discusses his new novel, Time Being by Tim Relf With the countdown on to publication of Jude Cook’s ‘existential’ literary thriller, Time Being, House catches up with the acclaimed author to find out what makes him tick 1. Tell us a lit...

I talked to @timrelf.bsky.social about my forthcoming novel, TIME BEING, for @saltpublishing.com's House Magazine. Out September 2026, folks. www.saltpublishing.com/blogs/house-...

Jude Cook discusses his new novel, Time Being by Tim Relf With the countdown on to publication of Jude Cook’s ‘existential’ literary thriller, Time Being, House catches up with the acclaimed author to find out what makes him tick 1. Tell us a lit...

Novelist @judecook.bsky.social discusses his forthcoming existential thriller, Time Being, with @timrelf.bsky.social in House Magazine!

Blackout by Yann Chateigné Tytelman a remarkable little book - a meditation on grief, silences, solitude, the solaces (or otherwise) of art.
Taking in Charles Ray’s Ink Box, Celmin’s sea pictures, David Toop, Judy Nylon along the way. It’s another fantastic work from @lesfugitivespress.bsky.social

Master of the apocalypse László Krasznahorkai is only the second Hungarian to be awarded the Nobel prize in literature. He follows Imre Kertész (1929–2016), whose best-known book outside Hungary is Fatelessness – an account b...

"The legacies of Dostoevsky, Gogol and Kafka, along with Robert Walser and Thomas Bernhard, stalk the historical and psychological territory from which Krasznahorkai has emerged with his own original, gigantic, idiosyncratic constructions. "
George Szirtes
www.the-tls.com/literature-b...