Lettice Ulpha Cooper

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(3 September 1897 – 24 July 1994) was an English writer.

Biography

She began to write stories when she was seven, and studied

Classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford Lady Margaret Hall (LMH) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, located on a bank of the River Cherwell at Norham Gardens in north Oxford and adjacent to the University Parks. The ...

, graduating in 1918. She returned home after Oxford to work for her family's engineering firm and wrote her first novel, ''The Lighted Room'' in 1925. She spent a year as associate editor at '' Time and Tide''. Her novel ''The New House'' (1936) describes the events of a single day. ''National Provincial'' (1938) depicts 'Aire', a city based on

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

, during the 1930s. The characters cover a wide social range, and many are involved in left-wing politics. A main thread of the novel is the conflict between militant and moderate socialists, which finds bitter expression in the course of an unofficial strike, and during a Parliamentary election campaign. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Lettice Cooper worked for the Ministry of Food's public relations division. ''Black Bethlehem'' (1947) is an unusually-structured novel, a psychological study of wartime and postwar anxieties on the battlefield and on the Home Front. The novel reflects her strong interest in psychoanalysis. Cooper met Eileen Blair (George Orwell's wife) during the war, and is thought to have used her as the basis for the character of Ann in ''Black Bethlehem''. In an account, printed in ''Orwell Remembered'', Cooper recalled that Eileen described how Orwell read each installment of ''

Animal Farm ''Animal Farm'' (originally ''Animal Farm: A Fairy Story'') is a satirical allegorical novella, in the form of a beast fable, by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. It tells the story of a group of anthropomorphic far ...

'' to her each evening and she came in each morning to tell her colleagues how the book was developing.
Between 1947 and 1957 Cooper was fiction reviewer for the ''

Yorkshire Post ''The Yorkshire Post'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds, Yorkshire, England. It primarily covers stories from Yorkshire, although its masthead carries the slogan "Yorkshire's National Newspaper". It was previously owned by ...

''. Her novel ''Fenny'' (1953) is set in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

, where she frequently visited her close friend, Lionel Fielden. She was one of the founders of the Writers' Action Group along with

Brigid Brophy Brigid Antonia Brophy (married name Brigid Levey, later Lady Levey; 12 June 19297 August 1995), was an English author, literary critic and polemicist. She was an influential campaigner who agitated for many types of social reform, including ...

Maureen Duffy Maureen Patricia Duffy (born 21 October 1933) is an English poet, playwright, novelist and non-fiction author. Long an activist covering such issues as gay rights and animal rights, she campaigns especially on behalf of authors. She has receive ...

Francis King Francis Henry King (4 March 19233 July 2011)Ion Trewin and Jonathan Fryer"Obituary: Francis King" ''The Guardian'', 3 July 2011. was a British novelist and short-story writer. He worked for the British Council for 15 years, with positions in ...

and

Michael Levey Sir Michael Vincent Levey, LVO, FBA, FRSL (8 June 1927 – 28 December 2008) was a British art historian and was the director of the National Gallery from 1973 to 1986. Biography Levey was born in Wimbledon, London, and grew up in Leigh-on-S ...

and received an

for her work in achieving Public Lending Rights. ''Snow and Roses'' (1973) is a novel set in Yorkshire and based on events of the miners' strike of 1972. She wrote County Books series volume ''Yorkshire West Riding'', published by Robert Hale in 1950. At a PEN Congress in Stockholm, a Swedish writer remarked of Cooper: "She is what we expect English people to be but what they so seldom are" She never married.

Awards and honours

She was appointed OBE in the 1978 Birthday Honours. In 1987 at the age of ninety she was awarded the Freedom of the City of

Selected works

*''The Lighted Room'' (1925) *''The Ship of Truth'' (1930) *''The New House'' (1936) (Reprinted by

Persephone Books ''Persephone Books'' is an independent publisher based in Bath, England. Founded in 1999 by Nicola Beauman, Persephone Books reprints works largely by women writers of the late 19th and 20th century, though a few books by men are included. Th ...

in 2004) *''National Provincial'' (1938) (Reprinted by Persephone Books in 2018) *''Fenny'' (1953) *''Biography of Robert Louis Stevenson'' (1947) *''Black Bethlehem'' (1947) *''Three Lives'' (1957) *''Blackberry's Kitten'' (1960) *''The Double Heart'' (1962) *''Tea on Sunday'' (1973) *''Snow and Roses'' (1976) *''Desirable Residence'' (1980) *''Unusual Behaviour'' (1986) *''Une Journee avec Rhoda'' (1994)

References

Sources

Library ThingAuthor's Page Persephone BooksOxford DNB
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Lettice 1897 births 1994 deaths 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English women writers Alumni of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford English women novelists Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from Eccles, Greater Manchester Presidents of the English Centre of PEN Writers from Greater Manchester