John Arthur Cooper

Born on the first of January during the forty's in Staffordshire, John's education took place in a working class environment. Back in the days when kids walked to school on their own, played hob-knobs and marbles on the pavement and posh racy people owned Ford Corsairs, passing the eleven plus came as a total shock to his parents. He was dispatched to the towns Technical High School as the Grammar School was just too snobby.

Interest in academia waned with the rush towards long trousers and a Reg Harris bike with Campagnolo gears. A mild infatuation with the Salvation Army brought about an ability to play a Tuba and a general adversity to all things religious.

At fifteen the glamorous world of The Royal Navy called and he joined as a boy entrant in the bitterly cold winter of 1963. Electing to join the Fleet Air Arm he completed two 'Character forming' voyages on HMS Bulwark and HMS Eagle doing things with helicopter torpedo's and fixed wing aircraft ejector seats.

Marriage in 1969 saw him leave the sea in 1972 and settle in rural Herefordshire working on the publicity staff of a major motor oil producer. 1973 saw the arrival of the first of five children.

The pressing needs of an expanding family forced a change in career direction and in 1980 he joined the West Mercia Constabulary, eventually becoming the 'Village Bobby' for the villages of Whitchurch and Symonds Yat between Ross-on-Wye and Monmouth. There he remained until his retirement in 2004. Towards the latter part of his police career he was tasked with the creation of crime prevention projects. The most significant was the establishment of a large Drugs Rehab Facility deep in the protective folds of the Wye Valley. It was run as a charity and assisted older men who had experienced a lifetime of addiction and crime to change their lives and stay out of prison. During this time he gained a Masters Degree in Psychology (Drug Use and Addiction) at John Moores University Liverpool and after retirement went on to manage the project for five years.

The urge to write emerged in or around 2006 resulting in his first novel 'Subject to Status' a factional tale of government intrigue and human frailty. This novel was partly written on the Vietnamese tropical island of Phu Quoc. The sequel 'Black Nothing' followed in 2010.

John now spends most of his time in South East Asia and has produced a series of five adult novels Subject To Status, Black Nothing, The Ten Bob Notes, When Jonny Comes Marching Home and In My White Room (With Black Curtains Near The Station). Two children's books, a short story compilation book called The Story Book and other stand alone novels – Chrysanthemum Ben, The Great Escape, The Great Pretender, Counting On It, Only The Lonely, The Saigon Connection and it's sequel - Blight. Smoke from The Barrel and New Horizon. His current novel is called The High Life which is projected to be released later this year (2024).