Publisher of military history books and husband of Jilly CooperLeo Cooper, who has died aged 79 after suffering from Parkinson's disease, was a publisher with a zeal for military history, who also enjoyed some notoriety as the husband of the novelist Jilly Cooper.Leo's hospitality was out of all proportion to the size of his establishment. Every day, for 20-odd years, he kept open house at his "branch office", the Oporto pub in London's Covent Garden, where the company might include anyone from a general to a dustman. You might not have Leo to yourself for more than a minute or two – he really did do a lot of business at the bar – but you could always be sure of a drink.Indeed, given Leo's appetite for company and a glass, it was, said the military historian Sir John Keegan, astonishing that he achieved anything serious in life. Yet he did. Were it not for Leo, the list of those "which have no memorial" would be far longer. Too nice a man to have made a successful soldier himself (though he did command a transport platoon during the Mau Mau uprising), Leo thought that those who had been at the sharp end deserved to have their say.So, although his publishing business was based upon monumental works such as Lord Anglesey's eight-volume History of the British Cavalry (1973-95) and the Famous Regiments series, he was always on the look out for what George Orwell called "unofficial history", such as Antonia Hunt's Little Resistance (1982), the extraordinary story of an English... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
Penguin Random House UK is expecting all London-based staff to work from home from Tuesday (17th March) and cancelling all events, including bookshop events, Penguin Live, launch parties and "any meetings". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-16 02:54:57 UTC ]
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Our 2017 round-up features World Book Day, launch parties, Pride, a Guiness World Record and a Del-Boy lookalike. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-12-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publisher of military history books and husband of Jilly CooperLeo Cooper, who has died aged 79 after suffering from Parkinson's disease, was a publisher with a zeal for military history, who also enjoyed some notoriety as the husband of the novelist Jilly Cooper.Leo's hospitality was out of all... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this