John Cooper: Dewsbury born author - and former Reporter journalist - releases third book

John Cooper, a former pupil of Wheelwright Grammar School, told the Reporter that writing this novel - ‘Fields of Madness’ - had been his most enjoyable writing project since launching his writing career in 1959 on the Dewsbury Reporter.

The novel tells of the trials of a modern whizz-kid, dislodged from his career of designing IT solutions to finding himself rocketed back to the Middle Ages and John thought this should be an obvious theme for a novel.

But a superficial survey of what was available in bookshops on subjects like this proved him wrong, so he decided to write one himself.

How he narrowed down the theme of the book is quite an interesting story because as a child during World War Two, John suffered badly from asthma.

“Today, that is a common disorder among children but at that time there were no treatments,” recalled John, who was born in Bywell Road and lived there until aged 21.

“I was off school frequently enough for my teachers to record on my school reports that I should not expect to get a scholarship for Wheelwright Grammar School. But I did.”

John’s father was an inspector for the Ministry of Agriculture at the time and it was his job to visit farms in North Yorkshire to assess if potatoes stored in straw and soil “clamps” in fields, were fit for human consumption.

On the occasions when John was off school, Mr Cooper would take him on these visits, and they often drove past the memorial cross commemorating the Battle of Towton during the Wars of the Roses in 1461.

“I was gripped by the story of this particular battle which resulted in more dead – over 20,000 – than any other conflict in English history,” said John.

“I never forgot it and I suppose it has always been there at the back of my mind. Writing this book gave me the opportunity to draw on the history of this battle.”

John, who trained as a journalist at the Reporter, subsequently worked on daily newspapers, including the Yorkshire Evening Post, where he covered theatre reviews and industrial matters.

He later left journalism and became the press officer for David Brown Tractors before becoming in charge of PR at the Shepherd Building Group, York. He later left to set up his own consultancy in the late seventies.

John, who has an Honours Degree in Creative Writing from Hull University, had a bestselling collection of poetry, ‘Unreliable Judgements’, published in 2010, followed by a selection of short Stories, ‘Tales of the Curiously Unfortunate. in 2016.

‘Fields of Madness’ by John Cooper is currently available in paperback, priced at £7.99 and is available at Waterstones, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.