KOPS, BERNARD

born Nov. 28, 1926, London, Eng. English playwright and novelist known for his works of unabashed sentimentality. Kops left school at the age of 13 and worked at various odd jobs before beginning to write. He established himself with his first play, The Hamlet of Stepney Green (1959), a reversal of the family relationships depicted in William Shakespeare's Hamlet, ending happily in an affirmation of the human spirit. Among his other plays are The Dream of Peter Mann (1960), an apocalyptic drama in which much of the action occurs as a dream, and Playing Sinatra (1991), which centres on a brother and sister obsessed with the legendary performer. Kops's early life of poverty and his Jewish background informs much of his work, including Enter Solly Gold (1961), in which a con artist convinces a Jewish millionaire that he is the Messiah in order to steal his money, the surrealistic drama Ezra (produced 1981), based on the personality of the American poet Ezra Pound, and Dreams of Anne Frank (1998). His novels include Awake for Mourning (1958) and The Dissent of Dominick Shapiro (1966). He also wrote an autobiography, The World Is a Wedding (1963), as well as several radio and television plays. Barricades in West Hampstead (1988) is one of Kops's many collections of poetry.