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'In 1985 Jacqueline Kent was content with her life. She had a satisfying career as a freelance book editor, and was emerging as a writer. Living and working alone, she relished her independence. But then she met Kenneth Cook, author of the Australian classic Wake in Fright, and they fell in love.
'With bewildering speed Jacqueline found herself in alien territory- with a man almost twenty years older, whose life experience could not have been more different from her own. She had to come to terms with complicated finances and expectations, and to negotiate relationships with Ken's children, four people almost her own age. But with this man of contradictions - funny and sad, headstrong and tender - she found real and sustaining companionship.
'Their life together was often joyful, sometimes enraging, always exciting - until one devastating evening. But, as Jacqueline discovered, even when a story is over that doesn't mean it has come to an end.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
A Kind of Heroism
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: Inside Story , February 2019;
— Review of Beyond Words : A Year with Kenneth Cook 2019 single work autobiography 'Stoked by cigarettes and whiskey, Kenneth Cook kept writing until the end' -
A Writer’s Life : Bloke Culture, Bankruptcy and Booze
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 16 February 2019; (p. 20)
— Review of Beyond Words : A Year with Kenneth Cook 2019 single work autobiography'In 1961, at the age of 31, Kenneth Cook released his first novel, Wake in Fright, which remains his most renowned work. In the book, John Grant, a schoolteacher assigned to a tiny town in rural Australia, misses his flight home to Sydney and finds himself stranded in the fictive mining town of Bundanyabba (‘‘The Yabba’’).' (Introduction)
-
Jacqueline Kent : Beyond Words : A Year with Kenneth Cook
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , March 2019;'Award-winning biographer Jacqueline Kent has written books about Beatrice Davis, Hephzibah Menuhin and Julia Gillard, but here she tells a much more personal story of her relationship with the writer Kenneth Cook. '
-
Kent and Cook
2019
single work
essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , March no. 409 2019; (p. 29)'Kenneth Cook (1929-87) was a prolific author best known for his first novel, Wake in Fright (1961), which was based on his experience as a young journalist in Broken Hill in the 1950s. In January 1972, as I sat in a London cinema watching the film made from this novel by director Ted Kotcheff, its nightmare vision of outback life seared itself into my brain. I was about to return home to Australia after two and a half years away, and I wondered why on earth I had made the fateful decision to go back to a place as violent and cruel as this. (Introduction)
-
[Review] Beyond Words: A Year with Kenneth Cook
2018
single work
review
— Appears in: Southerly , December vol. 78 no. 3 2018; (p. 256-259)
— Review of Beyond Words : A Year with Kenneth Cook 2019 single work autobiography 'At a publishing acquaintance’s dinner party in 1985, Jacqueline Kent met the writer Kenneth cook, still best known for his visceral 1961 best-selling debut novel, Wake in Fright, a nightmarish glimpse into the red heart of darkness at the centre of Australian history and society.' (Introduction)
-
[Review] Beyond Words: A Year with Kenneth Cook
2018
single work
review
— Appears in: Southerly , December vol. 78 no. 3 2018; (p. 256-259)
— Review of Beyond Words : A Year with Kenneth Cook 2019 single work autobiography 'At a publishing acquaintance’s dinner party in 1985, Jacqueline Kent met the writer Kenneth cook, still best known for his visceral 1961 best-selling debut novel, Wake in Fright, a nightmarish glimpse into the red heart of darkness at the centre of Australian history and society.' (Introduction) -
A Writer’s Life : Bloke Culture, Bankruptcy and Booze
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 16 February 2019; (p. 20)
— Review of Beyond Words : A Year with Kenneth Cook 2019 single work autobiography'In 1961, at the age of 31, Kenneth Cook released his first novel, Wake in Fright, which remains his most renowned work. In the book, John Grant, a schoolteacher assigned to a tiny town in rural Australia, misses his flight home to Sydney and finds himself stranded in the fictive mining town of Bundanyabba (‘‘The Yabba’’).' (Introduction)
-
A Kind of Heroism
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: Inside Story , February 2019;
— Review of Beyond Words : A Year with Kenneth Cook 2019 single work autobiography 'Stoked by cigarettes and whiskey, Kenneth Cook kept writing until the end' -
Kent and Cook
2019
single work
essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , March no. 409 2019; (p. 29)'Kenneth Cook (1929-87) was a prolific author best known for his first novel, Wake in Fright (1961), which was based on his experience as a young journalist in Broken Hill in the 1950s. In January 1972, as I sat in a London cinema watching the film made from this novel by director Ted Kotcheff, its nightmare vision of outback life seared itself into my brain. I was about to return home to Australia after two and a half years away, and I wondered why on earth I had made the fateful decision to go back to a place as violent and cruel as this. (Introduction)
-
Jacqueline Kent : Beyond Words : A Year with Kenneth Cook
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , March 2019;'Award-winning biographer Jacqueline Kent has written books about Beatrice Davis, Hephzibah Menuhin and Julia Gillard, but here she tells a much more personal story of her relationship with the writer Kenneth Cook. '
Awards
- 2020 shortlisted National Biography Award
