Making Emmanuel Cooper: Life and Work from His Memoirs, Letters, Diaries and Interviews

Potter, writer, teacher, editor, curator and gay rights activist, Emmanuel Cooper was a unique figure in the cultural landscape of England for nearly a half-century. With his death in 2012, he left behind an extraordinary body of work and an archive that illuminated his own life and career and that of the many other makers, artists, and activists who surrounded him.

Edited by Cooper’s long-term partner, David Horbury, and drawing from the posthumous archive, this book uses his unpublished memoirs, diaries, and correspondence to tell the story of an intelligent, if unconfident, working-class boy from a small mining village whose life was transformed, first by the magic of clay, and later by the liberation politics of the late 1960s.

The book covers Emmanuel’s career as a potter, his work at the Royal College of Art, and his editorship of the internationally acclaimed Ceramic Review magazine, as well as his thoughts on a range of issues from the art versus craft debate to his passion for folk art. Making Emmanuel Cooper also charts his involvement in the gay liberation movement, including his part in the creation of the hugely influential Gay Left collective and his work as a journalist. His trailblazing books on aspects of queer art and culture—including The Sexual Perspective, published in 1986 to wide critical acclaim—broke new ground at the intersection of sexuality and the visual arts. Richly illustrated, Making Emmanuel Cooper is both a personal and social history that celebrates the life and times of an important artist and a remarkable man.

David Horbury worked as a producer and scriptwriter for the BBC and other media companies. He met Emmanuel Cooper in 1982, and they lived together until Emmanuel’s death in 2012. They celebrated their civil partnership in 2006.