Edmund Cooper

From Philosopedia

Edmund Cooper (30 April 1926 - 11 March 1982)

Cooper, an English poet, wrote fiction, children's books, essays, and detective novels under pen names such as Martin Lester, George Kinley, Broderick Quain, and Richard Avery.

He was born in Marple, Cheshire, England, left school at 15, and worked at a variety of jobs before joining the Merchant Navy.

Cooper married Joyce Cooper, and they divorced in 1963, after which he married Valerie. He fathered eight children.

After World War II, he trained as a teacher. His first novel, Deadly Image (later republished as The Uncertain Midnight) was completed in 1957 and published in 1958. Cooper was an outspoken atheist.

A Sunday Times obituary mentioned that Cooper had reviewed for the paper for nearly 15 years, had died in Chichester, and that he was in the middle of a new novel. He was described as being an "elegant and cheerful outsider who belonged to no literary cabal," preferring the "freedom of his Sussex countryside."

(See an online biography by Joe Smith.