Cooper, William (1910–2002)

English novelist. After Trina (1934), set in Yugoslavia, and three further novels under his own name, he published Scenes from Provincial Life (1950) under his pen-name, to protect identities. Subsequent novels in a similar vein of amused observation include Scenes from Married Life (1961) and Scenes from Later Life (1983). From Early Life (1990) is a series of autobiographical fragments.

He was born in Crewe and educated at Christ's College, Cambridge. He taught in Leicester until World War II, during which he served in the RAF. He was an assistant commissioner of the Civil Service Commission 1945–58, after which he held several part-time consultancies with national bodies which included Central Electricity Generating Board 1960–72.