This is the first book-length study of the work of contemporary writer Bernard Kops. Born on November 28, 1926 to Dutch-Jewish immigrants, Bernard Kops became famous after the production of his play The Hamlet of Stepney Green: A Sad Comedy with Some Songs in 1958. This play, like much of his work, focuses on the conflicts between young and old. Identified as an “angry young man,” Kops, like his contemporaries John Osborne, Shelagh Delaney, and Harold Pinter, belonged to the so-called new wave of British drama that emerged in the mid-1950s. Kops went on to create important documentaries about the Blitz and living in London during the early 1940s. He has written two autobiographies, over ten novels, many journalistic pieces, and more than forty plays for TV, stage, and radio. A prolific poet, Kops has authored a long pamphlet poem and eight poetry collections. Now in his mid-80s, the prolific and versatile Kops still produces, his creativity undimmed by age.

"In celebrating the spirit of optimism that shines through the thoughts and dreams of one extraordinary thirteen-year-old during the darkest of times, Bernard Kops has created a dramatic masterpiece" (Time Out) "This play has been a catalyst in stimulating young people not only to question the past but also to confront the very real issues of racism today." (Jenny Culank, Artistic Director of Classworks Theatre, Cambridge) In 1942 Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl, was forced into hiding with seven others in a secret annexe in Amsterdam. Dreams of Anne Frank vividly brings her story to life in a poignant and highly charged drama. Using actors, movement and song Bernard Kops re-imagines and explores Anne Frank's hidden world, a world in which she lived, fell in love and dreamed of freedom. Dreams of Anne Frank won the 1993 Time Out award for best children's production and has been performed around the world. Commentary and notes by Bernard Kops

"Not since Coleridge's opium addiction has there been such a seismic account of a journey into hell and back...and there are jokes."--Michael Kustow

A powerful psychological drama set in an oppressive old house in London, where grown-up siblings Norman and Sandra resist their lonely future by living out their fantasies in the music of their idol, Frank Sinatra. Norman, an agoraphobic bookbinder, works at home and heats microwave meals to perfection; Sandra, with outside job and interests, longs to break free of her existence. But the option of leaving her mentally-disturbed brother and running off with the "mystic" Phillip proves less than straightforward...1 woman, 2 men

I am going to write every single day and tell you about my life here in Spitalfields at the heart of London... Drawing comparisons with Pepys, Mayhew and Dickens, the gentle author of Spitalfields Life has gained an extraordinary following in recent years, by writing hundreds of lively pen portraits of the infinite variety of people who live and work in the East End of London.

Interviews from an extraordinary career dedicated to art, life, and revolt.

A coming-of-age story by a master of storytelling on the need to love and cherish life and grab it by the drosky's reins. This is Kops at his most irrepressible and irreverent, vibrant and lyrical and connected - to the present and the past. Seventeen-year-old Sam Glass is depressed. Since his father died suddenly, he sees no point in life especially not among the cosy middle class environs where his love of quoting from classical literature falls on deaf ears. Then a strange figure appears who claims to be a rabbi from the Middle Ages, who takes Sam back in time to the Russia of 1881. He meets a panoply of characters including his own forebears and some familiar figures from Jewish history. Then he discovers the secret purpose for which he has been chosen -- to assassinate Tsar Alexander II ..

A vital, exciting collection of poetry for middle senior school level.