H.S. Hoff (William Cooper) was an English novelist, born in Crewe. After graduating from Christ's College, Cambridge in 1933 he became a science teacher in Leicester, an experience on which he seems to have drawn for his novel, Scenes from Provincial Life. Hoff served in 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. After retiring he held an academic position with Syracuse University, New York, lecturing on English literature to its students in London.Hoff wrote four novels between 1934 and 1946 under his own name but made his reputation with his first novel under the pen name William Cooper, Scenes from Provincial Life (1950), the first of five more or less autobiographical novels published over the ensuing half century. Hoff wrote 17 novels in all as well as short stories, two plays and a biography of his friend C.P.Snow. In 1971 he published an account of the trial of the Hosein brothers.[from Wikipedia]
