John Cooper studied and taught history at Oxford before moving to the University of York. His first book explored the power of propaganda in Tudor England, and he co-edited the catalogue of the ‘Henry VIII: Dressed to Kill’ exhibition at the Tower of London. He is currently working on the sixteenth-century Palace of Westminster.

John regularly gives public lectures on the Tudors and writes for the Times Literary Supplement. He lives in North Yorkshire with his wife, the author Suzanne Fagence Cooper, and their two daughters.