A new instalment of INVENTORY is available now via the @backlisted.bsky.social Patreon. This week: A virtual walking tour of the lost record shops of Croydon. Big thanks to @grindrod.bsky.social @brownwindsor.bsky.social and @rockingbob.bsky.social. #CroydonTillIDie www.patreon.com/backlisted

I could not agree with Rob more sincerely or wholeheartedly. This is a breakthrough book. You must read it.

My review of Someone Like Me, an excellent collection of essays by autistic writers, in this week's @thetls.bsky.social www.the-tls.com/regular-feat...

Really interesting interview with James Hunt, father of two autistic sons. I hadn't come across him before, but my daughter says she's been following him on Insta for ages! Thank you, @johnharris1969.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Out in paperback on April 2nd! Quote from Cameron Crowe and everything!

A piece of memoir for my March Substack: read The Happiest Man Alive: My Iranian Uncle for FREE here: 👇https://judecook.substack.com/p/the-happiest-man-alive

London, Leytonstone a week today @musicmaps.bsky.social Tickets: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1983727792...

A new instalment of INVENTORY is available now via the @backlisted.bsky.social Patreon. This week: Credits in the Straight World, featuring Young Marble Giants, Hole, death and taxes. www.patreon.com/backlisted

An audio version this week's INVENTORY is available now via the Backlisted Patreon. Julie Covington pt 2: Rock Follies of 77, Only Women Bleed, and what Julie did next. @backlisted.bsky.social www.patreon.com/backlisted

Top night in East London for the launch of @stuhennigan.bsky.social’s novel Keshed. Savage Northern poetic literature onslaught in darkest Mile End. Perfect 👌

Last call for this tonight. Do come along to hear @stuhennigan.bsky.social talk about his debut novel, KESHED, with me at Bárd Books this evening at 7pm. Should be a belter. @ortacpress.bsky.social. Tickets here: www.wearebardbooks.co.uk/event-detail...

The war sidelined this from the news, but dissent continues www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This should be awesome. Do come along to hear @stuhennigan.bsky.social talk about his fierce & moving debut novel, KESHED, with me at Bárd Books this Thursday 12th March, 7pm. @ortacpress.bsky.social Tickets going fast: 👇 www.wearebardbooks.co.uk/event-detail...

More than any other British artist, Paul Nash revived the English landscape tradition in modern terms. In 'The Rye Marshes, East Sussex,' (1932) he brings his understanding of Cézanne on his search for a satisfying compositional design.

#GetKeshed with us in London, it's gonna be a right schmooze.

In a world saturated with images, learning to think about what we see is vitally important. ‘Letting art history become endangered and drift further into elite status is not only unfair, it’s also perilous,’ writes Helen Barrett

I reviewed Helle Helle's precise, controlled unforgettable novella, They, in @theguardian.com. Translated by Martin Aitken, published by new small press Akoya. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/m...

In a change to our published programme, a new instalment of INVENTORY is available now via the @backlisted.bsky.social Patreon. This week: The Cramps, Live at the Napa State Mental Hospital, 13th June 1978 www.patreon.com/backlisted

Sentimental journey.

Sitting in the White Star last night with @jamesbpcook.bsky.social and @judecook.bsky.social, Penny Lane came on the jukebox (sic), then Strawberry Fields Forever a few songs later. All agreed that while this was 'on the nose', it was also complete magic.

New event alert: Do come along to the @owlbookshop.bsky.social in Kentish town on Thursday 23rd April to hear Shaun Wilson and Sam Mills talk about his brilliant debut novel MALC'S BOY (it's publication day too so should be great!) @conduitbooks.bsky.social Tickets: owlbookshop.co.uk/product/shau...

Having played a gig to just a soundman & his dog before (just the dog when the soundman went for a leak), 15 paying punters to see the fabulous, fierce Stu Hennigan is a pretty good start. Do please swell the throng & see me & Stu in conversation at Bàrd Books on 12th March 7pm (tickets below).

Still a way to go but I can't believe only 15 of you are coming to this so far. If this ends up like Ghost Signs where everyone flakes out an an anticipated packed house of 60 ends up being barely double figures there's gonna be trouble at t'mill 😂 www.wearebardbooks.co.uk/event-detail...

Mark Ronson’s memoir is a hoot. He makes 90s NYC sound even more exciting than 90s London. My review for this week’s @thetls.bsky.social www.the-tls.com/lives/autobi...

And here it is: the SEND reform plan, and why - for all its good intentions - it threatens a terrifying loss of rights, just when the worst imaginable govt might be newly in power www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

'Come gentle spring, come at winter's end.' Released 40 years ago today.

Latest from me: on the govt's imminent Special Needs revolution, and a familiar (old) Labour story: of lofty aims undermined by meagre budgets, constant anonymous briefings – and a drive to remove families’ basic rights www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The first episode of Bagpuss was originally broadcast on this day in 1974. Created by Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate, the series ran for just 13 episodes (with voices provided by Postgate, Sandra Kerr and John Faulkner).

Happy publication day to the deep, dark, beautiful ride that is Keshed by Stu Hennigan. We’re incredibly proud to be publishing this bold, uncompromising novel. Congratulations @stuhennigan.bsky.social, and thanks to @turnarounduk.bsky.social, Jack Smyth, Tom and Jaime Witcomb and Alex Billington.

Another SEND move today. The brilliant @spcialndsjungle.bsky.social has what you need to know www.specialneedsjungle.com/inclusion-ba...

New episode up now. Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis, with guest Doctor Rowan Williams. www.backlisted.fm/episodes/257...

Latest from me on Substack (it's free!) maybeimamazed.substack.com/p/what-does-...

Blood on the tracks. Great stuff from @iammilliam.bsky.social

A late-January Substack essay from me. Read In Plain Sight: The Dark Side of the 70s for FREE here: judecook.substack.com/p/in-plain-s...

Penultimate new episode up now. The Sacred and Profane Love Machine by Iris Murdoch, with guest Ian Patterson in Socratic dialogue with @unamccormack.bsky.social Nicky Birch and me. www.backlisted.fm/episodes/256...

I wrote about John Davidson’s moving, courageous memoir 'I Swear: My Life With Tourette’s' for this week’s TLS. @thetls.bsky.social www.the-tls.com/lives/autobi...

From the i's well-briefed breakdown of SEND changes: our increasingly nuanced, complex understanding of psychology & child development reduced to four "tiers" with an ejector-seat fifth that will seemingly involve actual rights. Humanity carved up by bureaucracy: No-one will like this system

If any journalists are covering the mounting controversy/briefing war about SEND changes, pls remember that the current system goes up to the age of 25. Abs no mention of this so far, which terrifies many people (inc me)

Latest from me on (free!) Substack: on the eve of drastic change, whether the govt likes it or not, the SEND debate is getting nastier... we're back to the national sport of seeing people's needs, and branding them cheats maybeimamazed.substack.com/p/whether-th...

Who wants to #GetKeshed with me and @judecook.bsky.social at Bard Books in London on 12th March? Cos tix are onsale as of this afternoon 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 www.wearebardbooks.co.uk/event-detail...

A new instalment of INVENTORY is available now via the @backlisted.bsky.social Patreon. Sign up as a Locklistener today, discover Comus and the musical death trip of scythechedelia, support the podcast. This week: Comus, First Utterance (1971) www.patreon.com/backlisted

In the build-up to the government's watershed changes to Special Needs education, there's one place you can find in-depth commentary/coverage: my (free) Substack, Maybe I'm Amazed. New post is a long read, out Thursday. Subscribe here open.substack.com/pub/maybeima... #autism #send

New episode up now. Jake Thackray: The Unsung Writer, with guests Paul Thompson and Andrew Male in conversation with Andy Miller and Una McCormack. @jakethackrayfan.bsky.social @andrewmale.bsky.social @unamccormack.bsky.social @iammilliam.bsky.social www.backlisted.fm/episodes/255...

6th Jan 1979 - Kevin Cummins took photos of Joy Division in a wintry Manchester. I loved investigating the story davehaslam.substack.com/p/ian-curtis... From a Wimpy Bar in Bradford, then to a wedding, a club called the ‘Glory Hole’, a sculpture called Alice, and an old mill near a river.

Whatever line the govt takes, if you want to sample the great cloud of misapprehension and false argument swirling around changes to the SEND system, check out this Times editorial - a prime example of "overdiagnosis" as the bollocksome catch-all explanation for abs. everything archive.is/PZU8b

This on the ongoing SEND mess, by @catrionamoore.bsky.social, is a must-read www.specialneedsjungle.com/leaks-denial...

Very happy that @tamarindlit.co.uk have run my short story 'Progresso' in their excellent new issue #9. Many thanks to @anitamchandran.bsky.social. Download the digital copy or buy the print edition here: tamarindlit.co.uk

A final Substack essay for 2025 from me. Read The Golden World: Do Politics and Fiction Mix? for FREE here: judecook.substack.com/p/the-golden... Happy New Year!

A special New Year's Day INVENTORY is available now via the @backlisted.bsky.social Patreon. Sign up as a Locklistener today, hit 2026 running with Pulp, Dog Day Afternoon and The Fallen Women, support the podcast. This week: Jarvis Cocker, 'The Loss Adjuster'. www.patreon.com/backlisted