Bernard Kops


Bernard Kops is a British dramatist, memoirist, poet and novelist.

Early life

Born in the East End of London, the son of Dutch Jewish immigrants, Kops was evacuated from London in 1939, and recounted that experience in episode two of Thames Television’s TV series, The World at War, first broadcast in 1973.

Career

His first play, The Hamlet of Stepney Green, was produced at the Oxford Playhouse in 1957. It is considered to be one of the keystones of the "New Wave" in British 'kitchen sink' drama.
His subsequent plays include Enter Solly Gold, Ezra, Playing Sinatra and The Dreams of Anne Frank. He has also written extensively for radio and television. His radio play Monster Man is about the creator of "King Kong", Willis O'Brien.
Kops wrote the television movie script Just One Kid for director/producer John Goldschmidt; the film was transmitted on the ITV Network in 1974, and won a Silver Hugo Award at the Chicago Film Festival. Kops then wrote the television film It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow, about the Bethnal Green tube disaster of 1943, also for John Goldschmidt, and this was nominated for an International Emmy Award for Drama Series.
He has published volumes of poetry, autobiography, several novels, and a memoir of the East End, Bernard Kops' East End. He has also written travelogues, including a series of articles about a trip to the United States and another about a journey to China, both written for The Guardian.

Personal life

In 1975, suffering from drug addiction, Kops made a suicide attempt; he writes about the incident and his successful journey to sobriety in his second autobiography, Shalom Bomb: Scenes from My Life.

Selected bibliography