FRSL
The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, elec ...
(born Alice Clare Antonia Opportune Cooper; 22 April 1953) is a British writer, primarily of
biographies
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or c ...
. She is married to historian Sir
Antony Beevor
Sir Antony James Beevor, (born 14 December 1946) is a British military historian. He has published several popular historical works on the Second World War and the Spanish Civil War.
Early life
Born in Kensington, Beevor was educated at two i ...
.
Family life
She is the only daughter of The 2nd Viscount Norwich (better known as John Julius Norwich) and his first wife, Anne (née Clifford), and a paternal granddaughter of Duff and Diana Cooper. She has a brother, the Hon. Jason Charles Duff Bede Cooper, and a half-sister, Allegra Huston, the only child of Lord Norwich and
Enrica Soma
Enrica Georgia Soma (May 9, 1929 – January 29, 1969) was an American socialite, model, and prima ballerina. She was also the wife of director John Huston and mother of their three children.
Life and career
Soma was born in Manhattan, New York, ...
(then-estranged wife of American film director
John Huston
John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered ...
Camden School for Girls
The Camden School for Girls (CSG) is a comprehensive secondary school for girls, with a co-educational sixth form, in the London Borough of Camden in north London. It has about one thousand students of ages eleven to eighteen, and specialist- ...
. She then went to
St Hugh's College, Oxford
St Hugh's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. It is located on a site on St Margaret's Road, to the north of the city centre. It was founded in 1886 by Elizabeth Wordsworth as a women's college, and accep ...
and obtained a degree in English language and literature.
In July 2015, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of York.
She spent time in
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...
with
Voluntary Service Overseas
Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) is a not-for-profit international development organization charity with a vision for "a fair world for everyone" and a mission to "create lasting change through volunteering". VSO delivers development impact throug ...
teaching English at the
University of Alexandria
Alexandria University ( ar, جامعة الإسكندرية) is a public university in Alexandria, Egypt. It was established in 1938 as a satellite of Fouad University (the name of which was later changed to Cairo University), becoming an indepen ...
. She has also lived in America, mostly in
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Albuquerque metropolitan area, Tiguex
, Offi ...
.
In 1986, Artemis Cooper married fellow writer and historian
Antony Beevor
Sir Antony James Beevor, (born 14 December 1946) is a British military historian. He has published several popular historical works on the Second World War and the Spanish Civil War.
Early life
Born in Kensington, Beevor was educated at two i ...
. The couple have two children.
Writing career
Cooper's first book was a collection of the letters of her grandmother, Lady Diana Cooper.
When her biography of
Patrick Leigh Fermor
Sir Patrick Michael Leigh Fermor (11 February 1915 – 10 June 2011) was an English writer, scholar, soldier and polyglot. He played a prominent role in the Cretan resistance during the Second World War, and was widely seen as Britain's greate ...
appeared in 2012, it was serialised on
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of Talk radio, spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history fro ...
. It was followed in September 2013 by '' The Broken Road'', effectively the third volume of Leigh Fermor's memoir of his walking trip from the Hook of Holland to Istanbul in the 1930s.
Cooper was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, elec ...
in 2017.
Bibliography
Books
*
**U.S. edition:
* ''The Diana Cooper Scrapbook'' (Hamish Hamilton, 1987)
* ''Cairo in the War, 1939-1945'' (Hamish Hamilton, 1989; )
* ''Watching in the Dark: A Child's Fight for Life'' (John Murray, 1992; a memoir of her daughter's childhood illness)
* ''Writing at the Kitchen Table: The Authorized Biography of Elizabeth David'' (Penguin Books Ltd, 2004; paperback ed.)
* ''Paris After the Liberation, 1944-1949'' (Hamish Hamilton, 1994; Penguin Books, 2007; written with her husband, Antony Beevor)
**''Paris despues de la liberación 1944-1949'' (2004, Spanish translation)
* ''Words of Mercury'' (John Murray, 2003; Patrick Leigh Fermor & Artemis Cooper; )
* ''
Patrick Leigh Fermor
Sir Patrick Michael Leigh Fermor (11 February 1915 – 10 June 2011) was an English writer, scholar, soldier and polyglot. He played a prominent role in the Cretan resistance during the Second World War, and was widely seen as Britain's greate ...
: An Adventure'' (John Murray, 2012; )
* ''
Elizabeth Jane Howard
Elizabeth Jane Howard, Lady Amis (26 March 1923 – 2 January 2014), was an English novelist, author of 12 novels including the best-selling series ''The'' ''Cazalet Chronicles''.
Early life
Howard's parents were timber-merchant Major David L ...
: A Dangerous Innocence'' (John Murray, 2016, )
Editor
* ''Tango'' (Thames & Hudson, 1995; ed. Simon Collier, Artemis Cooper, Maria Susana Azzi, and Richard Martin)
* ''Mr Wu and Mrs Stitch: The Letters of Evelyn Waugh and Diana Cooper'' (ed. Artemis Cooper)
* Patrick Leigh Fermor. ''The Broken Road: From the Iron Gates to Mount Athos'' (ed. Artemis Cooper and