Tom Cook (is finishing his thesis)
@TomCook24
poet critic person · typographer @FaberBooks · contributor @theTLS · known birdwatcher · for typesetting: [email protected] (next available 2026)
‘One of the greatest blessings conferred on our lives by the Arts is that they are our chief means of breaking bread with the dead’ (W. H. Auden)
i will keep tapping this sign until it clicks for every single person on earth. i will tap the sign until the day i die
A 2015 press cutting on Larkin’s rejection of nomination for the Oxford Professorship of Poetry. ‘My idea of hell on earth…is a literary party, and I have an uneasy feeling that the post carries with it a lot of sherry-drill with important people.’
Bob Dylan, 1984: ‘Someone asks you what a song is about. You say, have you heard it? They say yeah. You say that’s what it’s about: you heard it. That’s what it’s about; it’s about that.’
Ben Jonson, 1641
the first time i heard "big naturals" i thought it referred to major outdoor landmarks such as the grand canyon, or the great barrier reef
The magic of Wolpe’s Albertus lettering
I mean, one bookstore I walked past had this as a poster in their window and I defo wanted one
‘The Genius of Poetry must work out its own salvation in a man: It cannot be matured by law & precept, but by sensation & watchfulness in itself—That which is creative must create itself’ (John Keats, 8 October 1818)
Whenever I worry I’m trying too hard, I remind myself that Shakespeare – Shakespeare ffs – wrote *this*
"I love my country but I resent contributing to it, and that's why I'm leaving."
I saw a great YouTube comment the other day that said when Dylan does play his older songs he sounds like he’s trying to dodge a copyright claim
it’s so crazy that Bob Dylan is a real guy. a vagabond jester beloved by millions for songs he refuses to sing, who travels the world telling lies
I hope the fear of being mistaken for ChatGPT drives people away from the dash – which should be used parenthetically – back into the arms of the colon and semicolon; the former for consequent information, the latter for subsequent
I've never used a semicolon with 100% confidence.
These are the most satisfying books I’ve ever typeset. The hardback recreates the original 1965 layout in Perpetua type; the paperback offers a slick new setting, with stanzas preserved across page breaks and each poem given the breathing room it needs. Come buy, come buy!
‘I rise with my red hair And I eat men like air.’ Ariel: the sixtieth anniversary editions are out now.
sorry but [smiling knowingly] I have a nose ring and tattoos, I don’t exactly “fit in” to academia…[smile widens] let’s just say I don’t conform to the model of the “proper” academic [turning to my colleague] remind me are we allowed to hit the waiters at this restaurant?
I'd like to think...that people in pubs would talk about my poems
Now I have a cover to share, I can gleefully announce that AFTER YOU WERE, I AM will be published in the US by @mcsweeneys on September 16. (I will be doing a three-week US tour shortly afterwards. Dates and venues coming soon ...)
(misunderstanding LGBT slang) That outfit makes you look like a cunt
Protest songs in the 60s were so much sweeter and nicer. ('Masters of War' - Bob Dylan)