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Writer's Routine

Tom Cox, author of 'Everything Will Swallow You' - Uniquely creative award-winner discusses making your own genre, insisting on clarity, and inspirational walks

Writer's Routine

Dan Simpson

Arts, Hobbies, Books, Leisure

4.9599 Ratings

🗓️ 7 November 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Tom Cox has had a long and varied writing career. Over the last 25 years he has been The Guardian's youngest ever music critic, a record dealer, a golf and nature memoirist, and a unique creative writer. He's said to have 'one of the most fabulous and anarchic imaginations in literature'.


Tom finds finds magic in the everyday, from country ramblings and folklore to melancholic cats and oddball corners of the country. He's published the golf memoir, 'Bring Me The Head of Sergio Garcia', also nature books, '21st Century Yokel', and many books about cats. He's a Sunday Times Bestseller, won a Shirley Jackson Horror Writing Award, and was longlisted for the Wainwright Prize. He also banned himself from writing journalism again.


He chose to post all his writings online, and then crowd-funded a book, which did very well, very quickly. It's been a sticky year or so, as 'Unbounded' went out of business, and it's forced Tom to go back to traditional publishing.


Tom has just released the novel, 'Everything Will Swallow You', which tells the story of Eric and his confidante Carl. Their friendship is the only constant in an ever-changing world, but there's something about Carl that you'd never believe.


We discuss how he tries to keep it fun, why so much of his inspiration comes from walking, and why parts of his career have brought out the worst in social media.


You can hear why he's in a genre of one, what caused him to give up journalism, and the rule he keeps in mind when editing.


Get a copy of the book - uk.bookshop.org/shop/writersroutine


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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello, welcome along to a brand new episode of writer's routine. This week we're chatting to Tom Cox. Tom has had a varied career as a writer and has literally walked a winding path to reach his current point.

0:22.9

He's got a new book out. It's called Everything Will Swallow You. We discuss why his genre can

0:28.9

really only be defined as a Tom Cox novel, also why he gave up writing as a journalist

0:35.9

and wanted to forge his own way.

0:38.3

Just truly following my path and just sitting down and just going,

0:42.3

well, I'm going to write the stuff that really pleases me, the stuff that really,

0:46.3

it's the kind of world I really want to live inside.

0:48.3

And it was a weirder world.

0:50.3

And so it felt like a big break.

0:53.3

And that came in 2015 and that was when I gave up journalism.

0:58.2

And I just said, I'm never, I'm banning myself from ever writing another piece of journalism.

1:03.5

I'm never going to write anything for a national newspaper or a national magazine again.

1:08.0

I'm doing it all for myself on my website or in my books.

1:11.6

And you can hear the rule that he always keeps in mind when he's editing. And you're always

1:16.2

thinking, how can I say what I'm trying to say in the clearest, best way possible? Even if

1:25.2

that, what you're trying to say is really complex, you're still trying

1:29.2

to go for that, that

1:31.2

clarity. And my

1:33.4

pursuit of that has

1:35.2

become, I've become

1:37.2

much more hard on myself

1:38.8

in the pursuit of that. It's all on the way

...

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