Cooke was born in Sheffield, England,[1] and is the daughter of a university lecturer in botany and a biology teacher.
She has also written for the New Statesman, where she is television critic, and is a writer for The Observer newspaper.
[10] Cooke's first book, Her Brilliant Career: Ten Extraordinary Women of the Fifties,[11] was published in autumn 2013,[12] Katharine Whitehorn wrote in The Observer that "this excellent book should go far towards setting the record straight" about women's increasing experience of having professional careers rather than being confined to a life as a housewife as accounts of the 1950s commonly assume.
[13] Amanda Craig wrote in The Independent that Cooke's "writing does not delve deep but is eloquent, concise, fair-minded, witty and elegant.
[17] Cooke is married to the film critic and novelist Anthony Quinn, and lives in Islington, London.