Mary Hooper
Mary Hooper has been writing professionally for over 20 years. She started by writing short stories and serials for teenage and women's magazines when her children were small. Having done a few hundred, and thinking it would be good to see something more permanent on the shelves, she wrote and had published 15 teenage novels. Following this, she wrote another 15 novels or so for younger readers, all humorous.
She is perhaps best known for her historical fiction, which captures the atmosphere of the past perfectly and mixes it with romance and adventure. At The Sign of the Sugared Plum was her first historical novel for Bloomsbury. She has since written seven more including Fallen Grace. Mary left school at 15 with no qualifications. She worked as a secretary for some years, then got married and had two children. She took an English degree at Reading University as a mature student and graduated in 1990. She now divides her time between writing more serious books for teenagers and funny stuff for ages seven to twelve.
Books
At the House of the Magician
Author: Mary Hooper
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Interest age: 9+
Reading age: 9+
Lucy discovers that she has second sight. This enables her to warn the Queen of danger, and leads to her covert employment as a spy.
At the Sign of the Sugared Plum
Author: Mary Hooper
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books
Interest age: 11+
Reading age: 10+
It is 1665 and Hannah, the spirited heroine, is thrilled at the chance to visit London to help her sister in her sweetmeats shop, The Sugared Plum.
By Royal Command
Author: Mary Hooper
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Interest age: 9-14
Reading age: 9+
In the court magician's household, Lucy Walden, a young maidservant, has attracted the attention of none other than Her Grace, Queen Elizabeth.
Fallen Grace
Author: Mary Hooper
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books
Interest age: 12+
Reading age: 12+
Grace is desperately poor, struggling to evade the workhouse – she has also had an illegitimate child. And the sinister Unwin family are scheming to blight her life again...
Holly
Author: Mary Hooper
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books
Interest age: 13+
Reading age: 12+
Holly agrees to meet her secret admirer and is shocked when he claims to be her real father. Furious and upset, she confronts her mother, who eventually admits it to be true.
Megan
Author: Mary Hooper
Publisher: Bloomsbury Childrens Books
Interest age: 12+
Reading age: 12+
Megan is 15 when she realises she is pregnant. GCSE’s are imminent, the baby’s father seems disinterested and Megan has mixed emotions.
Newes From The Dead
Author: Mary Hooper
Publisher: Definitions
Interest age: 11+
Reading age: 11+
This intriguing novel is based on the case of maidservant, Anne Green, 'hanged for infanticide at Oxford Assizes in 1650. Restored to the world and died again in 1665'.
Petals in the Ashes
Author: Mary Hooper
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books
Interest age: 9+
Reading age: 9+
It is 1666: a year after Hannah, heroine of At the Sign of the Sugared Plum, first came to London and was forced to leave after the outbreak of plague.
Ring of Roses
Author: Mary Hooper
Publisher: Barrington Stoke
Interest age: 10+
Reading age: 8+
Abby has just accepted a job looking after a baby in a rich London household - but it's the summer of 1665 and the Great Plague is about to sweep the city. This thrilling, dyslexia-friendly book is a a tense exploration of what it was like to live through the epidemic.
The Betrayal
Author: Mary Hooper
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Interest age: 12+
Reading age: 9+
The final novel in Hooper's At the House of the Magician series, in which Lucy is in London, preparing for the imminent arrival of Dr John Dee, the court alchemist and his family.