Born in Dorset and now living in Somerset, Jeremy Cooper has spent decades moving between the worlds of art, literature and film. An art historian and curator, he first became widely known as a guest expert on Antiques Roadshow between 1979 and 1981, specialising in modern and contemporary art. Alongside his television work, he built a distinguished career writing about British art and artists, while quietly developing a unique voice as a novelist.
Although he published fiction earlier in his career, Cooper’s literary breakthrough came later in life. In 2018 he won the Fitzcarraldo Editions Novel Prize with Ash Before Oak — an intimate and deeply affecting nature diary that explores isolation, routine and depression with extraordinary honesty. The novel was widely praised for its precision, restraint and emotional depth.
Since then, Cooper has become recognised for a series of understated, humane novels centred on solitary lives and overlooked people. His most popular book, Brian, follows a lonely council clerk whose devotion to cinema offers comfort, escape and connection. The actor Toby Jones described it as “the most extraordinary novel,” adding that he had immediately been told: “You’d be great to play this part.”
At 77, Jeremy Cooper continues to write with remarkable clarity and compassion, creating work that finds profound meaning in ordinary lives. In this film, commissioned by East Quay Gallery, Jeremy’s extensive art collection in his house is analysed through a voiceover by Jessica Prendergrast, Director of Onion Collective. His previous life as an art dealer and appearances on Antiques Roadshow seem like a lifetime ago in the context of Jeremy’s career, but he is constantly surrounded by original works by Damien Hirst, Tracy Emin and others from the YBA cohort.