Artemis Cooper Explained

Artemis Cooper, Lady Beevor FRSL (born the Hon. Alice Clare Antonia Opportune Cooper; 22 April 1953) is a British writer, primarily of biographies. She is married to historian Sir Antony Beevor.

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.^[1] 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 (then-estranged wife of American film director John Huston).^[2]

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 and obtained a degree in English language and literature.^{[3] [4]}

She spent time in Egypt with Voluntary Service Overseas teaching English at the University of Alexandria. She has also lived in America, mostly in New Mexico.^[5]

In 1986, Artemis Cooper married fellow writer and historian Antony Beevor. The couple have two children.^[6]

Writing career

Cooper's first book was a collection of the letters of her grandmother, Lady Diana Cooper.^[7]

When her biography of Patrick Leigh Fermor appeared in 2012, it was serialised on BBC Radio 4. 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.

Honours

In July 2015, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of York.^[8] Cooper was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2017.^[9]

Bibliography

Books

• Book: Cooper, Artemis . A Durable Fire: the letters of Duff and Diana Cooper 1913-1950 . London . Collins . 1983.
  • U.S. edition: Book: Cooper, Artemis . A Durable Fire: the letters of Duff and Diana Cooper, 1913-1950 . New York . Franklin Watts . 1984.
• 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: An Adventure (John Murray, 2012;)^{[10] [11]}
• Elizabeth Jane Howard: A Dangerous Innocence (John Murray, 2016,)^[12]

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) (John Murray, 2013;)^[10]

Notes and References

1. News: Cunningham . John . 2000-12-09 . Knowing all the right people . en-GB . The Guardian . 2023-07-11 . 0261-3077.
2. News: Maslin . Janet . 2009-04-01 . A Daughter's Life With Daddy Issues . en-US . The New York Times . 2023-07-11 . 0362-4331.
3. Web site: Cooper. Artemis. Artemis Cooper - About. 29 August 2015.
4. Web site: Royal Society of Literature - Artemis Cooper . Royal Society of Literature - Fellows.
5. Web site: In Conversation Live with Artemis Cooper . 2023-07-11 . www.rsm.ac.uk . en-gb.
6. News: Farndale. Nigel. Antony Beevor: 'I deserved to fail history. I was bolshie...'. https://web.archive.org/web/20141019133716/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/11093344/Antony-Beevor-I-deserved-to-fail-history.-I-was-bolshie....html . dead . 19 October 2014 . The Daily Telegraph. 19 October 2014. 4 August 2016.
7. News: John . Cunningham . Knowing all the right people . . 9 December 2000 .
8. Web site: University of York honours 11 for their contribution to society . 2023-07-11 . University of York . en.
9. Natasha Onwuemezi, "Rankin, McDermid and Levy named new RSL fellows", The Bookseller, 7 June 2017.
10. News: William . Grimes . William Grimes (journalist) . Mapping a Life, and Finishing a Long Trip . . 8 November 2013 .
11. Kári Gíslason . April 2013 . A great charmer: the peripatetic and adventurous Patrick Leigh Fermor . . 350 . 52–53 .
12. News: Melissa . van der Klugt . Elizabeth Jane Howard's life, illuminated by Artemis Cooper . . The Australian . 8 October 2016 .