Susan Cooper was born in London in 1931. She spent her childhood in India where her father was the Commissioner of the Indian Tax Service. When she was eleven, her family returned to England and she attended St Paul's Girls' School. She won a scholarship to Somerville College, Oxford, but after three years decided to leave university and accept a job with an advertising agency.
Her first novel, The Tenth Queen of Scotland (1975), is set in York during the time of Edward I
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It was the first book by an Englishwoman to be published by Viking Press in the United States, illustrated by Brian Froud.
Cooper next wrote The Dark Is Rising (1978), which became the basis for two film adaptations: The Last Unicorn (1982) and Dragonheart (1996). These books are set in England during the period of the Wars of the Roses. Later she wrote The Grey King (1990), which is set during World War II, and The Grey King's Daughter (1994), about a woman who has been left behind on a mountain by her soldier husband during World War II.
She also wrote many children's books which have been illustrated by Brian Froud, including The Dark Is Rising Sequence, The Merlin Conspiracy Sequence, Merlin's Crystal, Merlin's Ring, Merlin's Ring Lost, Merlin's Ruby, Merlin's Sword and Crystal of Doom.
Cooper also wrote two short stories for magazines: "The Werewolf", "Hawk Moth" and "A Friend For Lunch". She has written three full-length novels for young adults: A Thief in Time (1993), A Quest for Arthur (2001) and The Pendragon Legacy (2007). Cooper has also written two novels for adults: An Age of Misrule (1989) and The Lake House at Whitsun (1994).
She has written seven collections of short stories entitled Stranger Than Magic.
She lives with her husband on the Kent coast near Maidstone in southern England. She enjoys walking, cooking and reading history books about people like Elizabeth I.