Early Life
Robin Cook was born in the County Hospital, Bellshill, Scotland, the only son of Peter and Christina Cook (née Lynch). His father was a chemistry teacher who grew up in Fraserburgh, and his grandfather was a miner before being blacklisted for being involved in a strike.
Cook was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and, from 1960, the Royal High School in Edinburgh. At first, Cook intended to become a Church of Scotland minister, but lost his faith as he discovered politics. He joined the Labour Party in 1965 and became an Atheist. He remained so for the rest of his life. He then studied English Literature at the University of Edinburgh, where he obtained an MA with Honours in English Literature. He studied for a PhD on Charles Dickens and Victorian serial novels, supervised by John Sutherland, but gave it up in 1970.
After a period working as a schoolteacher in secondary schools, in 1971 Cook became a tutor–organiser of the Workers' Educational Association for Lothian, and a local councillor in Edinburgh. He gave both up when elected a member of parliament on his 28th birthday, in February 1974.
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“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
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