Artemis Cooper, Lady Beevor

FRSL The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the ...

(born the Hon. 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 basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curri ...

. 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, mainly on the Second World War, the Spanish Civil War, and most recently the Russian Revolution and Civil War. ...

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 and actor. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics. He rec ...

). Cooper attended the French Lycee, the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Woldingham and Camden School for Girls. She then went to

St Hugh's College, Oxford St Hugh's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college 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 ...

and obtained a degree in English language and literature. She spent time in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

with

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 through a blended volunteer model c ...

teaching English at the University of Alexandria. She has also lived in America, mostly in

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

. In 1986, Artemis Cooper married fellow writer and historian

. 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. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

. 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 Hook of Holland (, ) is a coastal village in the southwestern corner of Holland, hence the name; ''hoek'' means "corner" and was in use before the word ''wikt:kaap#Dutch, kaap'' – "cape". The English translation using Hook is a false cognate of t ...

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in the 1930s.

Honours

In July 2015, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

. 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 George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the ...

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 Elizabeth David ( Gwynne, 26 December 1913 – 22 May 1992) was a British cookery writer. In the mid-20th century she strongly influenced the revitalisation of home cookery in her native country and beyond with articles and books about Europea ...

'' (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; ) * ''

: An Adventure'' (John Murray, 2012; ) * '' Elizabeth Jane Howard: 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

Colin Thubron Colin Gerald Dryden Thubron (born 14 June 1939) is a British travel writer and novelist. In 2008, ''The Times'' ranked him among the 50 greatest postwar British writers. He is a contributor to ''The New York Review of Books'', ''The Times'', '' ...

) (John Murray, 2013; )

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Artemis 1953 births Living people 20th-century English historians 20th-century English women writers 21st-century English historians 21st-century English women writers 21st-century English writers Alumni of St Hugh's College, Oxford British people of New Zealand descent British women editors British women historians Daughters of viscounts English editors Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Place of birth missing (living people) Wives of knights