Marcelle hoff biography of william

English novelist (1910–2002)

Harry Summerfield HoffFRSL (4 August 1910 – 5 September 2002) was an English novelist, writing under the name William Cooper.

Life

H. S. Hoff (William Cooper) was born in Crewe, the son of elementary school teachers,^[1] and attended Crewe County Secondary School before reading natural sciences at Christ's College, Cambridge.^[2] After graduating in 1933 he was a teacher in Leicester, an experience on which he seems to have drawn for his novel, Scenes from Provincial Life. Hoff served in the Signals Branch of the Royal Air Force in World War II, and later became a civil servant, associating closely with C. P. Snow, who appears in light disguise as Robert in Scenes from Provincial Life and its sequels. Amongst his appointments he worked for the UK Atomic Energy Authority and the Crown Agents. After retiring he held an academic position with Syracuse University, New York, lecturing on Biography of william shakespeare.