Jason Cobley
@jmcobleyauthor
Author of A Hundred Years to Arras, Calendar of Ghosts, Amnesia Agents, and more. Loves Dr Who, prog rock, jazz, and walking the dog. Currently writing a novel about fans of Marillion.
If you missed me today, come and see me at the Pump Rooms tomorrow for the second day of the Leamington Spa Book Extravaganza!
This was quite unique- it’s half novel, half biography of Albert Speer, Hitler’s architect. It focuses on their relationship and Speer’s complicity. Written in a detached style - he’s “the architect” or “the star” or “the prisoner” and Hitler is his “guide”. unflinching in letting the facts speak.
It’s a windy start at Coventry Festival of Books but the sun is shining, it’s cooler than yesterday, and we’ve got books!
Current reading : a novel about Albert Speer. Intriguing and a bit weird.
These are the books I’ve completed in Jan-June. Angel Down is good but puzzling as a Pulitzer winner. Tender is the Flesh is a brilliant nightmare. But the best book I’ve read this year is Careless People - It’ll make you angry, make you laugh and make you terrified in equal measure.
amzn.eu/d/00O2aazz A summer afternoon in 1983. It is also 2026. Something - a familiar song- is pulling Arthur Sallow into his memories of childhood, of friendship, and of Marillion.
Unboxing video! You can order direct from me or from Amazon. #marillion @marillion.com amzn.eu/d/0atMX9cc
Coming soon! I’ll be at Leamington Spa Book Extravaganza on Saturday 1st August AND Sunday 2nd August 2026! Come say hello on either or both days and pop along to Art in the Park as well while you’re at it!
Coming up… I’ll be at the Coventry Festival of Books on Sunday 12th June with these books! Come and say hello!
This is so weird. I don’t know who this person is or what the comment is pertaining to. It’s interesting to see the Twitter thing of sending a comment to someone then immediately blocking them is carrying over here too. I’d be mortified if I’d said anything inadvertently anti-women!
Available from Amazon or signed copies available direct from me. Just message me for details! amzn.eu/d/007ZOTje
I’m not getting any younger. That’s why I’m serialising ‘Wake Up in Music’ on Substack. It will be published in print in three ‘singles’, leading to the final ‘album’. Parts 1 to 4 are on Substack already. It’s a novel about friendship. open.substack.com/pub/jasoncob...
Good morning book lovers. What are you reading on this already-too-hot-to-sustain-life morning?
Pick a Bond villain from the pictures you already have on your phone.
Set in the trenches, saying something about our relationship with time and the land, I was worried that it was veering uncomfortably close to my own WW1 novel, but no need to worry. soldiers in 1917 become adrift in No Man’s Land and rescue a fallen angel. Or do they? Well deserved Pulitzer winner.
Current reading. Thought it must be good seeing as it’s just won the Pulitzer. So far, so puzzled by the author’s apparent confusion between American idioms and British ones…
What an exceptional memoir. It begins as a chronicle of volunteering on lifeboats and a history of Dungeness. It becomes a tribute to one man, but when the author begins his account of rescuing men, women and children, vulnerable humans all, from dinghies, it’s powerful, moving, beautifully written.
There’s something about getting older that makes old regrets and could-have-beens resurface. The news makes me weary of the world and experience makes me wary of people. Trying to live in the now is what I try to do. Hard to believe the rest of the world is awful when you’ve got this.
I re-read Cat’s Cradle earlier this year. It’s Vonnegut finding his tone, impossible to summarise the plot as it’s not that sort of book. Enjoyed it though.
New book purchases. Won’t anybody stop me? Won’t anyone think of those poor trees?
My novel A Hundred Years to Arras has been republished by Wilton Square. Now available to order through all good bookshops. A freezing Easter Monday in 1917. The Somerset Light Infantry is launched into the Battle of Arras. Three young friends fight for their lives and the chance to return home.
Beautifully written, full of fear and compassion, depicting an Ireland that could easily be here and frighteningly soon. The ending is just so good. The kind of book that inspires me back to writing; the kind of book that I want to write but I know I won’t ever quite get there.