Elspeth Cooper

Elspeth Cooper was born and raised in Newcastle upon Tyne in the north-east of England.Her parents read her 'Ivanhoe' as a bedtime story, which was, she says, their first mistake. Then an inspired primary school teacher introduced her, at age 8, to 'Beowulf', and by age 11 she'd worked her way through every book in the house, including her Dad's Penguin Classics editions of 'The Odyssey' and 'The Iliad'. 'The Lord of the Rings' was pretty much a natural progression, and an epic fantasy adventure fan was born.Elspeth describes herself as a voracious reader, and cites amongst her influences Susan Cooper, Alan Garner, Guy Gavriel Kay, Robert Holdstock and Tad Williams. She currently lives in Northumberland with her husband and cats, in a house full of books.'Songs of the Earth' is her first novel, and the first in The Wild Hunt series.