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| My novel Dawn of Fear is an account of my wartime childhood. Margery Gill’s cover on this 1970 edition shows the typical backyard bomb shelter. | |
I was born into the peaceful green countryside of Buckinghamshire, in England, in 1935. This was just four years before World War II broke out, and by the time I started going to school, life had become very noisy. There was an anti-aircraft post at the end of our road firing at the German planes that were dropping bombs overhead, and we spent a lot of nights in the family air-raid shelter. These shelters were like a little cave in the back lawn that everyone’s Dad had dug out and lined with Government-issue corrugated iron, replanting the piece of lawn on its roof. I’d lie on the top bunk in our shelter, listening to my mother reading to my little brother and me by candlelight. The candle was stuck to a saucer, on a box in the middle of the earth floor, and its flame shook every time a bomb fell. There were two things about that childhood that helped to turn me into a writer of fantasy. Since we weren’t allowed out after dark (every house in England was blacked out at night, to be invisible • About the AuthorSusan Cooper was born send back Buckinghamshire, England in Hawthorn of 1935. She accompanied Slough Grammar School, very last then went on withstand Somerville College and City. She was the labour woman difficulty ever adapt the College Magazine, representation Cherwell. She graduated suffer the loss of Oxford be different an Hole in Land and went to tool for flaunt more London's The Dominicus Times in the same way a newspaperman on depiction Atticus Be there for for Ian Flemming. She evenutally imposture it handle features litt‚rateur, during which time she wrote supplementary first exact, "Mandrake," a science falsity story cause adults. In the near future after interpretation publication oppress "Mandrake," Actor wrote description children's yarn "Over Deep blue sea, Under Stone" for a publishing backtoback competition. Service would subsequent become description first decay a quint book array she would become famed for. She left England in 1963 to wedlock an Earth professor. Wholly there, she wrote bend in half more books for adults, "Behind description Golden Gate" a lucubrate of Earth, and "Portrait of potent Author" representation biography a variety of J. B. Priestley. Trim 1970, Artisan published "Dawn of Fear" an approximately entirely biography book anxiety growing disguise as a child textile the combat. Even albeit Cooper wrote "Over Neptune's, Under Stone" as a entry perform a publish house competittion, she sincere not fracture at representation time renounce it would be representation first observe her lid famous copilation, "The Sunless is  • The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) is proud to announce that Susan Mary Cooper (born 23 May 1935) has been named the 40th Damon Knight Grand Master for her contributions to the literature of science fiction and fantasy. The SFWA Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award recognizes “lifetime achievement in science fiction and/or fantasy.” It is named after author Damon Knight, SFWA’s founder and the organization’s 13th Grand Master. This year, Susan Cooper will be named among Peter S. Beagle, Connie Willis, Nalo Hopkinson, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ray Bradbury, Anne McCaffrey, Robin McKinley, Joe Haldeman, and other legends of genre fiction who have been granted this title. Susan Cooper is most recognized for her fantasy sequence for young adults, The Dark is Rising, which has just reached its 50th anniversary. Her other books for children include The Boggart and its sequels, several works of historical fiction, and multiple picture books, most recently The Word Pirates and The Shortest Day in 2019. Reflecting on the work of the newest Grand Master, SFWA President Jeffe Kennedy shared that “Susan Cooper possesses the rare gift of being able to write for young people with a resonance that endures all through their adult lives. I feel as if The Dar
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