Tributes paid to ‘fearless and funny’ Observer journalist Rachel Cooke who has died aged 56

‘Fizzed with ideas’: Rachel Cooke in Blackpool Pleasure Beach for a story for the Observer. Photograph: Gary Calton/The Observer

Tributes have been paid to the journalist and critic Rachel Cooke after her death from cancer.

Cooke, 56, was diagnosed with the illness earlier this year and died on Friday. She worked for the Observer for 25 years, where she was described as “the backbone of the paper”.