Norman Cook

speaker

500 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 25 Jul

Norman Cook’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.

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Desert Island Discs · Norman Cook, DJ and musician · 25 Jul 2026 podcast

I'm going to choose The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressel.

For a few reasons, I've put a lot of thought into this.

It was a book that when I was recommended by Captain Sensible...

when I interviewed him for my fanzine and he just read it and he was like, oh, you've got to read it.

And it's basically, it's a kind of introduction to socialism about some painters who get together and look after each other rather than, because they're not being treated well by their bosses.

But it's a very gentle introduction to socialism.

I read it when I was 18 and that politicised me and set my political beliefs in action.

But I think I could probably read it again.

It's quite a long book, one that I've never gotten around to reading again.

So obviously I would have time to read it.

But also...

It's kind of the antithesis of Lord of the Flies.

So when the other people arrive, I can introduce them to the book and then we can build this utopian socialist society where we're all equal and not end up as Lord of the Flies where we're stabbing each other.

My musical choice is it's not like, do I like this now?

It's like, will I like this after 50 listens?

You know, I'm going to forgo the Bible if that's all right with you.

So my new utopian society will be based around the ragged trousered philanthropists.

It would be a label maker, please.

Like one where you print it on and then it prints out the sticky label.

A man who's had so much chaos in his life and he's found peace through labelling things.

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