Painter, draughtsman and teacher, born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Having begun to paint in his early teens Cook left boarding school as soon as he could and went to St Martin’s School of Art, 1966–70, where he became impressed by the work of David Bomberg and Leon Kossoff, influences seen in his own figure paintings and landscapes. After the Royal College of Art he eventually moved from London to Cornwall in 1985, settling in Newlyn, from 1990 teaching part-time at Falmouth School of Art and Design. Among the group exhibitions he appeared in were The Human Clay, an Arts Council show at Hayward Gallery, 1976; British Art 1940–1980, in 1980, with a similar sponsor and venue; Serpentine Gallery Summer Show in 1982; A Century of Art in Cornwall, at County Hall, Truro, in 1989; and Stephen Bartley Gallery, 1991.